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THE 


E  VIDEIVCE  S 


CHRISTIANITY: 


STATED    IN    A 


POPULAR  AND  PRACTICAL  MANNER, 


Ctoutse  of  Slecturcs, 


INTERNAL   EVIDENCES   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN  RELIGION, 


DELIVERED     IN    THE 


PARISH  CHURCH   OF  ST.   MARY,   ISLINGTON. 


BY   DANIEL   WILSON,   A.  M.,   Vicar. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. ..VOL.  II. 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED  BY  CROCKER  AND  BREWSTER, 

47,  Washington  Street. 

NEW  YORK— J.   LEAVITT, 

182,  Broadway. 

1830. 


PREFACE. 


Little  need  be  said  by  the  Author  on  the  present 
occasion,  after  the  observations  made  in  submitting 
the  former  volume  of  this  work  to  the  public  eye. 
His  object  has  still  been  to  unite  the  internal  with  the 
external  Evidences,  and  to  impress  them  upon  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  men. 

It  is  with  no  affected  diffidence,  however,  that  he  has 
ventured  to  appear  at  all  in  such  a  cause  as  the  Chris- 
tian Religion,  the  dignity  and  importance  of  which 
are  best  appreciated  by  those  who  have  most  maturely 
considered  so  great  a  question.  If  he  shall  only  have 
so  far  succeeded  as  to  stimulate  others  to  pursue  a  line 
of  argument  which  has  been  but  little  attended  to, 
compared  with  its  real  magnitude,  it  will  be  no  small 
satisfaction  to  his  mind. 

The  Author  enumerated,  in  the  preface  to  the  for- 
mer volume,  the  writers  whom  he  had  chiefly  consult- 
ed in  that  division  of  the  course.  Many  of  these  have 
continued  to  furnish  him  with  material  assistance  in 
the  present.  He  needs  scarcely  m(>ntion  other  well- 
known  productions  which  he  has  called  in  to  his  aid, 
on  the  subjects  connected  with  the  internal  Evidences. 
Baxter,  Bennet,  Dewar,  Doddridge,  Dwight,  Jona- 


IV  PREFACE. 

than  Edwards,  Fuller,  S.  Jenyns,  Bishop  Law,  Arch- 
bishop Newcombe,  Miller,  Scott,  John  Scott,  Owen, 
Simpson,  Skelton,  Bishop  J.  Taylor,  Wilberforce,  are 
names  familiar  to  the  theological  student.  To  those 
he  would  add,  the  lord  Bacon,  for  the  extraordinary 
thoughts  which  he  has  borrowed  from  that  great 
master  of  reason. 

The  principal  new  works  which  have  fallen  under 
his  notice  since  the  publication  of  the  former  volume, 
are  those  of  the  present  Bishops  of  London  and  Win- 
chester, and  the  late  Bishop  of  Calcutta, — whose 
treatise''  is  full  of  important  matter,  and  seems  far 
less  known  than  it  deserves — Messrs.  Bowdler,  Dr. 
T.  Brown,  Channing,  Dick,  Gerard,  Hampden,  E. 
G.  Marsh,  Taylor,  Sheppard,  Shuttleworth,  Pye 
Smith,  &c. 

To  these  names  he  has  peculiar  satisfaction  in  ad- 
ding that  of  an  American  writer  of  singular  talent, 
with  a  good  deal  of  the  mind  of  our  Bishop  Butler, 
Mr.  Verplanck,  whose  work  abounds  with  deep  and 
original  thoughts.^ 

In  foreign  divinity,  the  writings  of  Pascal  have  sup- 
plied him  again  with  valuable  matter.  Nor  can  he 
avoid  mentioning  the  production  of  M.  Frassynous; ' 
which,  abating  some  parts  where  the  corruptions  of 
his  church  have  affected  the  strength  of  the  argument, 
deserves  to  rank  amongst  the  first  works  of  the  day. 

In  the  course  of  the  volume  the  Author  has  also  had 
at  hand,  Abbadie,  Bullet,  L'avertisement  du  clerge 
francois,  1775;''  Bergeir,  Traite  de  la  religion;  Du- 

(a)  Dr.  James'  Semi  sceptic. 

(b)  A  reprint  has  not  yet  been  made  of  this  masterly  work. 

(c)  Defense  du  Christianisme. 

(d)  An  incomparable  lillle  Treatise  on  the  Internal  Evidences. 


PREFACE.  V 

voism,  demonstration;  Merault,  Religion  Chretienne 
prouvee  et  defendue  paries  objections  inemes  des  In- 
credules;  Les  Essais  de  M.  Placette,  and  the  able 
preface  of  M.  Jouffroy  to  his  translation  of  Dugald 
Stewart's  Sketches  of  Moral  Philosophy. 

The  Author  had  not  the  leisure  to  read,  or  rather 
re-read,  all  these  works,  but  he  has  consulted  them 
from  time  to  time.  It  is  not  from  books  that  he  has 
drawn  his  chief  materials,  but  from  the  Bible  itself, 
and  from  such  experience  and  observation  as  he  has 
been  able  to  collect  in  the  discharge  of  his  parochial 
duties. 

To  bring  to  bear  upon  the  minds  of  candid  and 
thoughtful  persons,  the  real  weight  of  the  internal 
Evidences  of  Christianity,  introduced  and  sustained  by 
the  external,  has  been  his  design — the  execution  and 
success  of  which  he  commends  to  the  mercy  and  good- 
ness of  Almighty  God — to  whom  only  would  he  as- 
cribe all  the  praise  for  whatever  aid  he  has  received 
in  pursuing  it — and  to  whose  glory  he  would  de- 
sire to  dedicate  this  and  every  other  effort  of  his  life 
and  ministry. 

Islington,  April  13,  1830. 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 

LECTURE  XIV. 
SUITABLENESS  OF    CHRISTIANITY  TO   THE 

STATE   AND    WANTS    OF    MAN.— l  Cor.    xiv. 

24,  25.  ------         25 

The  Christian  Revelation   is  suited   to  man   as   it  speaks  a 

DECISIVE  LANGUAGE,  and    gives   repose  and   satisfaction 

to  the  mind  in  the  greatest  and  most  perplexing  difficulties.         32 

As    it     UNFOLDS    ALL     THE    MYSTERIES    OF    HIS    CONDITION.  35 

Accounts   for    the   apparent    contradiction  of  his   state,  and 

addresses  him  in  this  condition,  and  no  other,  -  38 

As  it  PROVIDES    A    REMEDY    FOR    ALL    HIS    WANTS.  -  39 

Proposes  adequate  motives,             -              -             -             -  41 

Places  man  in  a  new  and  more  favorable   state  of  probation,  ibid 

Sets  before  him  a  system  of  means,             -             -         -  ibid 

All  agreeing  with  his  outward  circumstances  in  this  world,  42 
This  remedy  is   also  calculated  to  draw   out  to   the   utmost, 

all  the   powers  and  faculties  of  man,             -             -  ibid 

And  carry  him  on  to  his  true  end,              -             -             -  43 
As  it  is  CALCULATED  for   UNIVERSAL  DIFFUSION  under  the 

endless    diversities  of  his  state  and  character,             -  44 

Both  as  to  the  matter  of  Revelation,             -             -  ibid 

And  the  manner  or  form  of  it,                 -             _             _  46 

Christianity  connives  at  no  one  vice,             -             -  47 

This  adaptation  does  not  strike  the  mind  at  once,              -  48 
Is  A  prospective  scheme  formed  by  the  wisdom  of  God, 

and  revealed  perfect  and  complete  at  once,             -          -  49 
As  is  VIEWED  ARIGHT  from  the  midst  of  human  weak- 
ness, misery  and  sorrow,             _             _             -  ibid 


VIU  CONTENTS. 

LECTURE  XV. 
THE   EXCELLENCIES    OF   THE    DOCTRINES 

OF  CHRISTIANITY— 1  John  iv.  8—10,  -  52 

The     CHIEF     DOCTRINES     ENUMERATED,  -  -  63 

The  being,  perfection  and  providence  of  the  one  living  and 

true    God,  _____  {\^{^ 

The  guilt  and  condemnation  of  man,  -  -  -       55 

Redemption  in  the  incarnation  and  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of 

God,  ______  56 

The  personality  and  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  -       58 

The  Sacraments,  and  other  means  of  grace,  -  -         59 

The   resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  the    last  solemn  judg- 
ment, -  -  -  -  -  -  ibid 

The  EXCELLENCY  of  the  doctrines,  -  -  -         60 

They  all  emanate  from  the   character  of  God,  -  ibid 

Possess  simplicity,  -  -  -  -  -  61 

And  a  surpassing  grandeur  and  sublimity,  -  -  62 

Their  harmony,  -  -  _  _  _  63 

Meet  all  the  necessities  of  man,  and  yet  promote  the  ends  of 

God's  moral  government,  -  -  -  -  66 

Are  deeply  humiliating,  and  in  the  highest  degree   consola- 
tory, __--__  68 
The  magnitude  and  sublimity  of  the  great  design  of  Almighty 

God,  of  vehich    the    doctrines  are    the    result,  -  70 

An    appeal;  whether  the  inward   evidence  of  Christianity, 
from  its  peculiar  doctrines,  does   not    shine   brighter    and 
brighter.  -  -  -  -  -  -  74 

A  correspondent  love  and   gratitude  to   God  on  the  part  of 

the  true  Christian,  ought  to  be  produced,  -  -         75 

LECTURE   XVI. 
THE  UNSPOTTED   PURITY    OF   THE    CHRIS- 
TIAN MORALS.— Titus  ii.    11—15.  -  -         76 
The  EXTENT  and  purity  of  the  Christian  morals,             -  77 
They  embrace  all  that  was  really  good  in  the  ethics  of  Hea- 
then sages,             _____               ibid 
Are   complete,               -              -             -             -             -             78 
Erect  the  only  true  and  unbending  standard  of  duty  to  God 

and    man,  _  _  -  _  -  jbid 

Omit  many  false  virtues  of  heathenism,  and  insist  on  many 
real  ones  unknown  to  it,  -  -  -  -         79 


CONTENTS.  IX 

Page. 

Dwell    chiefly  on  the  mild   and  retiring  virtues,             -  79 

Require   an  abstinence  from  the  proximate  causes  of  evil,  80 
Christian   morality  regards   outward   forms  of  devotion    and 

piety,  as  means  to  a  higher  end,              -             -         -  ibid 

All  Christian  precepts  aid  each  other,             -             -         -  ibid 

And  go  to  form  a  particular  sort  of  character,         -         -  81 
The  WAY  THE  GOSPEL  PROCEEDS  to   make  these  precepts 

practicable,               -              -              -             -             -  82 

Christianity  begins  with  the  heart,             >             -           _  ibid 

Aims  at  achieving  its   object  by  the  formation  of  habits,  ibid 
Directs   men  to    aim   at  the  highest  attainments,  whilst  she 

encourages  the  weakest  efforts,             -             -             -  83 

Keeps  aloof  from  secular  policy,             _             -             -  ibid 
Delivers  her  code  in  the   form  of  maxims   and   prohibitions, 

clear  and  decisive,               -               -               -               -  84 

Works  by  setting  forth  strong  and  affecting  examples,         -  85 

Refers  men  to  the  all-seeing  eye  of  God,              -         -  86 
The  connection  of    the  morals    of    Christianity    with 

EVERY  other  PART  OF   REVELATION,  and  especially  with 

its      PECULIAR      DOCTRINES,  _  _  -  86 

The  facts  on  which  the  doctrines  rest,  prepare  for  the  opera- 
tion of  motives,  -----  87 

The  doctrines  are  expressly  designed,  and  admirably  adapted, 

to  produce  Christian  obedience,  _  -  _         ibid 

They  go  to  form  that  sort  of  character  which  the  morals 

require,  ------         88 

The  love  of  Christ  constrains,  _  _  -  89 

The  promises   and  privileges  of  the  gospel  are    attached    to 

certain  dispositions  and  states  of  mind,  -  -  ibid 

Christianity  holds  out  to  men    further  advances  in    holiness,         90 
The  doctrine  of  the  heavenly  state,  .  _  -         ibid 

The  manner  in  which    the  precepts    are  involved    in  all    the 

other  parts  of  Revelation,  -  -  -  -         91 

The  SANCTIONS  by  which  the  Christian    morals  are  ulti- 
mately    ENFORCED,  -  _  _  - 
The  WILL  OF  God  is  the  authority  of  moral  obedience,  92 
The  morality  of  the  gospel  makes  it  impossible  in  the  na- 
ture of  things,  that  Christianity  should  be  an  imposture,  94 
The  above  is  strengthened  by  the  wretched  system  which 

modern  infidels  propose  for  the  direction  of  mankind,  96 

Men  ought  therefore  to  hold  fast  by  the  Christian  faith,         01 
1 


ibid 


X  CONTENTS. 

Page, 

LECTURE    XVII. 

THE  PRE-EMINENT  CHARACTER  AND  CON- 
DUCT OF  OUR   LORD — Mark  vii.   37.             -  99 
Claims  of  Christ,             -             -              -             .           .  100 
The  conduct  of  our  Lord  in  his    more  peculiar  character    as 

Mediator,              -             -             -             -             -  102 
The  manner  in  which  he  sustained  his    high  claims  of  being 

the    Son  of  God   and    the  Saviour  of  the  world,             -  103 

His  conduct  as  a  Teacher  and  Revealer  of  the  will  of  God,  104 

His    manner    of   instruction,                  -             -             -  105 

The  matter  of  his  instruction,             -             -           -         -  106 
The    manner   in    which   our   Lord    supported    the   state    of 

humiliation,              _              _             _             -             _  108 
The  heavenly  reward  that  he  promised  to  his  disciples,         -  109 
The  conduct  of  our  Lord  as  the  example  of  human  vir- 
tue   TO    Ills  DISCIPLES,                  -                  _                  _               _  no 

His  piety  and  devotion  to  his  heavenly  Father,              -  111 

His  benevolence  and  conr:passion  towards  man,             -  112 

His  meekness  and  lowliness  of  spirit,             -             -  113 

His  superiority  to  the  world,             -             -              -  114 

His  strict  temperance  and  command  of  the  inferior  appetites,  ibid 

His  fortitude  and  constancy,             -             -             -  115 

His  prudence  and  discretion,             _             _             _  ibid 

The  UNION  of  separate  graces,               -               -         -  116 

His  virtues  were  unalloyed  with  the.  kindred  failings,             -  ibid 
The  opposite,  and  to  us  apparently  contradictory,  graces  were 

found  in  him  in  equal  proportion,                   -              -  ibid 
All  was  carried  to    the    greatest    height,  and    continued    in 

one  even  tenor,            -              -              -              -              -  117 

A  peculiar  harmony,             -             _             _             _  ibid 
The  character  of  our  Lord  as  the  Founder  of  the 

Christian   religion,              -             -             -             -  118 

Its  suitableness  to  the  necessities  of  man,                  -  ibid 
The  surprising  novelty  and  sublimity  of  our  Saviour's  charac- 
ter,              -             -             -             -             -             -  119 

The  different  parts  of  our  Lord's  character  correspond  with 

his  undertaking,              _____  ]20 

The   impression  and   effect  of  the  whole  public   character  of 

Christ,                _            .            .            .            .  loj 


CONTENTS.  XI 

Page. 

The  manner  in  which  it  is  given  by  the  Evangelists,  -         122 

This  argument  springs  from  a  fair  presumption  upon  the 

first  statement  of  the  case,  _  -  -  124 

Rises  higher   by  contrasting  the   character    of  Christ 

with  tliat  of  all  others,  _  _  _  _  125 

Becomes  a  moral   demonstration,  when  the  other  branches 

of  the  Christian  evidences    are  taken  into    the   account,  127 

It  bears  away  the  heart  of  the   docile,  and  strengthens  all 

the    principles    of  individual    belief  and   love.  -  129 


LECTURE  XVIII. 

THE  TENDENCY  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  PRO- 
MOTE IN  THE  HIGHEST  DEGREE  THE 
TEMPORAL  RND  SPIRITUAL  HAPPINESS 
OF    NATIONS    AND    INDIVIDUALS.— Luke  ii. 

13,   14.             -             -             -                         -            -  131 

The  nature  of  the  argument   explained,              -             -  132 

The  direction  which  Christianity  takes,             -             -  134 

It  comes  down  to    man's  actual    circumstances,             -  136 

Its  direct  tendency  as  to   nations,             _             _             _  jbi,} 

Its  indirect  tendency,               -               -             _             _  133 
The  hindrances  which  impede  the  full  effects  of 

the   Christian    religion,             _             _             _  f^id 
The  success  of    Christianity  in  proportion  to  the 

removal  of  these  hindrances,               -              -  141 

In  the  age  following  the  establishment  of  the  gospel,         -  142 

Tlie  next  ages,             -             -             -              -             -  143 

At  the  period  of  the  Reformation,              _             _             _  ibfj 

In  any  subsequent  age,             _             _             _             _  jbfj 

The  proportion  holds   with  regard   to    national    welfare,  144 

This  tendency  is  still  in  progress,              -              _              _  ibid 

And  arises  from  principles  new  to  man,             -             -  146 

The  hindrances  were  foretold  by  Christianity  herself,         -  ibid 
The    ultimate     effects    which     Christianity    will 

PRODUCE    when    all    OBSTACLES    ARE     REMOVED,             -  147 

Let  each    one    ask  himself,    what  is   the    tendency  of  my 

Christianity?             _             -             _             _           _  ]54 

Pray  for  the  copious  influences  of  grace.             -             -  155 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  XIX. 


Page. 


THE    TEST    TO    WHICH    EVERY    ONE    MAY 
BRING  THE    TRUTH   OF    THE   CHRISTIAN 
RELIGION,  BY     HUMBLY    SUBMITTING  TO 
ITS     DIRECTIONS,  AND  MAKING  A    TRIAL 
FOR  HIMSELF    OF    ITS    PROxMISED    BLESS- 
INGS.—1  John  V.   10.  .  .  -  158 
The  NATURE  of  the  argument,              -             _             _  159 
The   SCRIPTURAL  AUTHORITY  On  which  it  re.sts,             -  163 
The  FACTS  by  which  it  is  sustained,             -              -                   167 
The  SINGULAR  IMPORTANCE  of  the  proofs  thus  deduced,             175 
Appeal  to   sincere  Christians  in    confirmation  of  the   argu- 
ment,             ______           185 

LECTURE    XX. 

PRACTICAL  DIRECTIONS  FOR  THE  APPLICA- 
TION OF  THE  TEST  TO  WHICH  MEN  MAY 
BRING  THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION.— 
Psalm  xxxiv.  8.  -  -  -  -  -  187 

The  characters  addressed,  described,  -  -  -  188 

The  directions;  study  Christianity  in  the  Bible  itself,         190 
Trace  out  in  your  own  heart  the  truth  of  its  statements 

as  to  the  condition  of  man   and    his    guilt  before    God,  194 

Pray  fervently  to  God  for  his  grace,  -  -         -         198 

Use  the  means  which  God  has  promised  to  bless,         -  200 

Keep  your  eye  fixed  on  Jesus  Christ,  -  -         201 

Observe   how   all    the  parts   of  Christianity  constitute  a 

WHOLE,  and   meet  all    the  necessities  of  your  case,  203 

The  RESULT,  -  -  _  -  _  204 

Historical  faith  will  only  increase  your  condemnation,         208 
No  NEED  to    make    an  experiment  of  any  other  form  of 

religion  or  irreligion,  _  _  _  _  ibid 

LECTURE  XXI. 

THE  VANITY  AND  FUTILITY  OF  THE  OB- 
JECTIONS BROUGHT  AGAINST  THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN RELIGION.— 2  Peter  iii.  3,  4,  8,  9.  -         210 

The  best  method  of  treating  objections  considered,  -        211 


CONTENTS.  Xin 

Page. 

They    are   inadmissible,   being    speculative  opinions,  and 

aimed  against  Revelation,  -  -  -  213 

They  are  contradictory  one  to  the  other,  -  -         219 

They  are   frivolous  in   themselves,  and   manifestly   spring 

from  the  pride  and  ignorance  of  the  human  mind,  -         224 

They  are  upon  the  whole  only  trials  of  our  sincerity  and 
submission  of  heart  to  God,  and  go  to  confirm  rather 
than  weaken  the  Christian  evidences,  -  -  234 

Sophisms  of  infidelity  fix   themselves   in   unfurnished  and 

VAIN  minds,  _  _  _  _  -  239 

Shun  those  vices  which  prepare  for  them,  -  ibid 

Provoke  not  the   good    Spirit  of    God    to   depart   from 

you,  __._--  240 

See  that  you  have  a  real  hold  on  Christianity  in  its  sub- 
stantial  BLESSINGS,  _  _  _  -  ibid 

Objections  of  infidelity  are  stratagems  of  Satan,  -         241 

Consider  them  as  the  most  deadly  product  of  the  corrupt 

and  proud  reason  of  a  fallen  creature.  -  -  242 

LECTURE  XXII. 

THE  LIVES  AND  DEATHS  OF  INFIDELS  COM- 
PARED WITH  THOSE  OF  SINCERE  CHRIS- 
TIANS.—Psalm  xxxvii.  .35—37.  -  -  244 

Contrast  the  two  classes  as  to  the  tenor  of  their  lives,  245 

Their  more  public  labors,  and  the  writings  they  have 

submitted    to  the   eye   of   mankind,  -  -  258 

Their  deaths  and  preparation  for  an  eternal  state 

of  being,  _____  095 

With  which  company  do  you  walk  in    the  journey  of 

life.?  .-..__  278 


LECTURE  XXni. 
THE  FAITH  WITH  WHICH  THE  CHRISTIAN 

REVELATION  IS  TO  BE  RECEIVED.— John  v. 

9.  ___...  282 

The  nature  of  faith  in  divine  Revelation,  -  -         283 

Definition  and  illustration  of  faith,  _  _  .         ibid 

It  must    be   a  living  principle,  -  -  -  287 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Difficulty  in  exercising  faith   in  religion  arises  from  the   cor- 
ruption   of  man,             -                           _             .          _  287 
The  scriptural  account  of  faith,             -             _             .  289 
The  REAsoxABLENEss  of  such  a  faith  after  admitting  the 

divine  authority  of  Christianity,  _  _  _  290 

The  discoveries  of  the  Christian  religion  show  this  -  291 

The  province  of  reason  marked  out,  -  -  ibid 

The  necessity  of  divine   aid,  in   order    to    believe   aright,  is 

most   reasonable,  _  _  _  -  294 

The  EXTENT  to  which  faith  should  be  carried,  -  296 

Faith  should  embrace  every  part  of  Revelation,  -  297 

Give  to  each   the  relative    importance   assigned,  -  298 

Stop  with  minute  and  watchful    conscientiousness  where    the 

Revelation  stops,  _  _  -  -  299 

Follow  the  language    as  well  as   the  sentiments  of  the  holy 

Scriptures,  -  _  _  _  -  301 

Faith    produces  tranquillity,  _  _  _  302 

And  is  the  principle  of  the  Christian  life,  -  -  304 

Examine  whether  your  faith  be  living  and  influential,  305 
Implore  the  grace  of  the    Holy  Spirit   to  impart    to    you 

such  a  faith,  .  _  .  _  _  306 

The  highest  degrees  of  faith  are    best    calculated    to 

produce  humility  of  mind,  -  -  _  308 

LECTURE  XXIV. 
THE     SOUND     INTERPRETATION     OF     THE 

RECORDS  OF  REVELATION.— 2  Timothy  ii.  15.         310 

A  right  method  of  interpreting  Scripture,  springs  directly 

FT-OM  a  true  faith.     For  such  a  faith,  -         -         311 

Implies  an  honest    application  of  our    understanding    to    the 

Scriptures,  _____  312 

Includes  a  willingness  to  submit  our  understanding  and  heart 

to  ail  the  truths  which  God  is  pleased  to  reveal,  -  ibid 

Puts  us  in  possession  of  many  of  the  blessings  of  which    the 

Scriptures  treat,  -  -  -  -  -         313 

Leads  us  to  seek  the   assistance  of  God's  blessed    Spirit   in 

rightly  understanding  the    Scriptures,  -  -  314 

Guards  us  against  the  danger  of  hazardous    interpretations, 

or  a  false  use  of  difficult  passages,  -  -  315 

And  disposes  us  to  resort  to  all  necessary  helps,  -  ibid 


CONTENTS.  XV 

Page. 

Common  sense  and  the   ordinary  laws  of  human  lan- 
guage aid  the  right  interpretation,  -  -  316 
The  simplest  sense  is  generally  the  true  one,         -             -         318 
The  occasion  of  the  book  being  written  should  be  consulted.         ibid 
Let  brief  passages  be  explained  by  those  that  are   more  full 

on  the  same  or  kindred  subjects,  _  _  _         319 

Figurative  and  poetical  parts  should  be  interpreted  by  the 
fixed  and  ordinary  laws  which  are  constantly  applied  to 
such  language  in  common  life,  _  _  _  309 

We  should  suspend  our  judgment  where,  after  all,  a  passage 

is   not  obvious,  -  -  -  -  -         321 

The  great  scope  and  analogy  of  truth   will    either  solve   all 

material  dilliculties,  or  render  them    practically  useful,  322 

The  rules  suggested  by  that  particular  character  of  inspi- 
ration which  belongs  to  the    Bible,  -  -  323 
We  should  rise  to  the  sublimity  of  the  Scripture  mysteries,  ibid 
We  must  give  to  the  last  portion  of  Revelation  that  weight 

which  it  may  justly  claim,  -  -  -  -  324 

What  is  temporary,  local,  and    extraordinary,  must    not    be 

allowed  to  hide  the  lustre  of  what  is  permanent  and  uniform,        325 
Distinction   must   be  made    between    vital    Christianity  and 

merely  nominal  adherence  to   its   external    ordinances,  326 

The  use  and  place  and  relative  bearings  of  every  truth  are  to 

be  derived  from  the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  the  truth  itself,         327 
We  must  not  force  the  simple  meaning  of  Scripture  either  to 

express  or  exclude  mysteries  according  to  our  turn  of  mind,         329 
We  must  not  attempt  to  reduce  truth  to  a  human  system,  331 

The  OBJECTION  to  Revelation,    founded   on    the   diversity  of 

interpretations,  stated  and  refuted  by  showing,  -  333 

That  the  facts   have  been  greatly  exaggerated,  -  ibid 

That  they  are  not  chargeable  on  Christianity,  -         -         ibi(j 

That  they  fall    chielly  on    subordinate   matters,  -  334 

That  the  remaining  evils  may  be  diminished  and  avoided  in 

practice,  -  -  .  .  _  ^^i^ 

That  the  universal  Church   has  presentek   but    one  front    of 

trutli  to   mankind,  _  -  _  _  335 

Application: 

Vital  Christianity  of  the  heart  can   alone   interpret  aright,         ibid 
Let  each  one  who  is  conscious  that  he  has  never  understood 
bis  Bible,  humble  himself  before  the  throne  of  mercy,  and 
implore  the  grace  of  the   illuminating  Spirit.  -  336 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

Page. 

LECTURE  XXV. 

THE  UNIVERSAL  OBLIGATION  WHICH  LIES 
UPON  EVERY  HUMAN  BEING  TO  OBEY 
THIS  DIVINE  REVELATION.— John  iii.  18—21.         338 

All  men  are  bound  to  love  and  obey  God  by  the  strongest 

ANTECEDENT     OBLIOATIONS,  _  _  _  339 

Christianity  is  so  excellent  in  itself,  that  the   slightest 

external  evidences  is  sufficient  to   oblige  men  to  obey  it,         343 

The  real  simplicity,  variety,  independence,  and  force 

of  the  evidences  increase  the  obligation,  -  -         346 

The  particular  advantages  which  each  individual  has 
respectively  enjoyed,  unspeakably    augment  the   duty,         353 

The  momentous  discoveries  which  Christianity  makes,  and 
the  deep  interest  at  stake,  carry  the  obligation  to  an 
inconceivable  height,  _  _  _  _  357 

Let  then  your  submission  to  Christianity  be  immediate,  363 

And  Cordial.  _  _  _  _         _  364 


A  BRIEF  review  of  the  argument  arising  from  the  internal 

proofs,             -             -              _             _             _             _  367 

The   general   nature    of  the    argument,             -             -  ibid 

Its     details,                  .              _             -             .             -  369 
Its  agreement  with  the  probationary  and  imperfect   state  of 

man,  -  -  -  -  -  -371 

The  several  branches  of  the  argument  to  be  collected  together.  37;2 


LECTURE  XXVI. 

CONCLUSION    of  THE    ENTIRE    COURSE. John    XX.    30, 

31. -  374 

Some  REMARKS  UPON  thc  whole  of  the    subject    which  we 

have  discussed,  -  -  -  -  -  ibid 

The  TIDE  of  proof,  as  it  has   been   rolling   down    from    its 

earliest  rise  to  the  present  hour,  _  _  _  375 

The  INCIDENTAL  manner  in  which  the  flood  has  been  formed,  ibid 

The  ACTUAL  MASS  of  EvidtMice  now  before  our  eyes,  384 

An  ADDRESS  to  the  rulers  and  governors  of  our  country,  390 

The  ministers  of  Christ's  Church  -  -  -  392 

The  humble  and  teachable,  -  -  -  396 

Ascription  of  praise   to   God.  _  .  -  398 


LECTURE  XIV. 


SUITABLENESS    OF    CHRISTIANITY    TO    THE 
STATE  AND  WANTS  OF  MAN. 

1  Cor.  xiv.  24,  25. 

But  if  all  prophesy,  and  there  come  in  one  thai  helieveth  not,  or 
one  unlearned,  he  is  convinced  of  all,  he  is  judged  of  all: 
and  thus  are  the  secrets  of  his  heart  made  manifest;  and  so 
falling  doivn  on  his  face,  he  will  ivorship  God,  and  report 
that  God  is  in,  you  of  a  truth. 

Having  considered  in  our  former  Lectures  the  first  great 
division  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,  those  which  estab- 
lish the  Authenticity,  Credibility,  Divine  Authority,  and  In- 
spiration of  our  sacred  books;  we  come  now  to  the  second 
division  of  them,  those  arising  from  the  excellency  of  the 
contents  of  the  religion  itself. 

The  first  division  is  termed  the  external  evidences, 
because  they  attend  the  religion  from  without,  and  attest  its 
divine  origin;  the  second  arc  called  the  internal,  because 
they  come  from  within,  and  arise  from  those  characters  of 
truth  which  are  wrought  into  the  very  nature  and  composi- 
tion of  the  revelation. 

External  evidences  are  tlie  credentials  of  the  messenger 
who  comes  to  us  from  tiie  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth;  tlie 
internal  arc   derived  from  the  excellency  of  the  message 
4 


26    ,  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XIV. 

which  he  delivers.     Tlie  latter  evidences,  therefore,  follow 
the  former,  and  are   subsidiary  to  them. 

Our  Lord  and  his  apostles  placed  Christianity  on  this  foot- 
ing. They  came  with  the  most  undoubted  miraculous 
works,  and  claimed  at  once  the  obedience  of  mankind;  and 
afterwards,  they  appealed  to  those  unnumbered  indications 
of  a  divine  excellency  which  the  matter  of  their  doctrine 
contained. 

The  external  evidences  now  raise  us  as  nearly  as  possible 
to  the  same  situation  with  the  Jews  and  Heathen  at  the  pro- 
mulgation of  the  gospel.  By  means  of  them,  we  still  see, 
as  it  were,  the  miracles,  and  witness  the  divine  works,  of 
our  Lord  and  his  apostles."  We  do  more;  we  trace  a  sur- 
prising accomplishment  of  a  scries  of  prophecies,  in  the 
person  of  Christ  and  the  events  of  his  church;^  we  read  the 
accounts  of  the  supernatural  propagation  of  his  religion;*^ 
we  behold  the  manifest  good  effects  produced  on  mankind.'^ 
On  this  ground  we  are  bound  to  believe  the  doctrine;  and 
doing  this,  we  shall  be  in  a  situation  to  follow  out,  with  the 
first  Christians,  the  numberless  proofs  of  a  divine  excellency 
in  the  matter  of  revelation  itself. 

But  here  it  is  important  to  remark,  that  the  converts  of 
our  Lord  and  his  apostles  w^ould  never  have  been  permitted 
to  examine,  in  the  first  place,  the  doctrines  of  Christianity 
on  the  footing  of  their  own  reasoning,  and  of  suspending 
their  obedience  on  the  agreement  or  non-agreement  of  its 
instructions,  with  their  prc-conceived  notions  of  what  it  was 
fit  for  God  to  reveal:  this  would  have  been  monstrous  and 
absurd;  it  would  have  been  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the 
Almighty,  and  would  liave  oflercd  the  most  impenetrable 
barrier  to  any  just  perception  of  the  internal  evidences  at  all. 
In  like  manner,  men  can  never  be  allowed  now  to  inves- 
tigate, in  the  fust  place,  the  matter  of  revelation  by  the 
pretended  fitness  of  things  and  the  light  of  their  own  reason, 
and  to  suspend  their  obedience  on  the  agreement  or  non- 
agreement  of  the  doctrine  with  their  pre-conceivcd  notions. 
This  would  suppose  a  previous  acquaintance  with  what  a 

(a)  Led.  vii.vol.  1.        (b)  Lectures  viii.  and  ix.        (c)Lect.  x.        (d)  Led.  xi. 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  27 

divine  revelation  should  contain;  and,  if  true,  would  alto- 
gether supersede  the  necessity  of  it.  It  is  hard  to  say 
whether  the  pride  or  folly  of  such  a  notion  be  the  greater. 
But  sure  it  is,  that  such  a  mind  would  never  discover  any 
internal  evidence  of  the  truth  of  Christianity. 

And  yet  this  is  the  course  pursued  almost  uniformly  by 
unbelievers.  They  pass  over  the  immense  body  of  exter- 
nal evidences;  they  begin  with  inquiring  into  what  they 
term  the  reasonableness  of  the  things  revealed;  they  plunge 
into  metaphysics;  "^  they  then,  of  course,  misunderstand  or 
pervert  almost  every  article  of  the  faith  which  they  profess 
to  examine;  and,  lastly,  reject  Christianity  as  not  according 
with  their  notions  of  wisdom  and  expediency. 

Not  so  the  sincere  inquirer.  He  receives  Christianity 
with  humble  gratitude,  on  the  ground  of  the  external  cre- 
dentials with  which  Almighty  God  has  been  pleased  to  ac- 
company it;  and  then  he  traces  out,  as  he  is  able,  those  in- 
trinsic excellencies  of  the  matter  revealed,  which  may  con- 
firm his  faith  and  animate  him  in  his  obedience.  He  is  so 
far  from  thinking  that  a  revelation  cannot  come  from  God, 
because  he  sees  not  in  every  respect  the  fitness  and  reason- 
ableness of  its  contents,  that,  on  the  contrary,  he  concludes 
that  the  revelation  is  wise,  good,  just,  and  fit  to  be  received, 
because  he  has  every  reason  to  believe,  from  its  external 
evidences,  that  it  has  a  divine  origin.'" 

It  is  in  this  manner  we  reason  as  to  the  works  of  nature 
and  providence.  Wiien  once  we  have  admitted  the  being 
and  perfections  of  an  all-wise  Creator,  from  the  grandeur 
and  contrivance  and  harmony  pervading  the  general  order  of 
creation,  we  conclude  that  the  unnumbered  parts  of  it  which 
we  do  not  yet  understand,  are  good,  because  they  come 
from  the  same  divine  hand.  Thus  also,  when  we  have  once 
received  a  divine  revelation  on  its  undoubted  miraculous 
proofs,  we  are  bound  to  conclude  that  all  the  matter  of  it  is 
good  and  right,  because  it  comes  from  the  God  of  truth  and 
holiness. 

It  is  necessary  to  observe,  however,  here, — what  will  be 
obvious  to  every  considerate  person, — that  the  internal  cvi- 

(c)  See  Bishop  Van  Mildcrl.  (f)  Bishop  Gibson. 


28  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XIV. 

denccs  do  not  arise  from  all  the  parts  of  revelation;  but 
from  those  wliicii  are  level  in  some  measure  to  our  compre- 
hension, or  addressed  to  our  experience.  They  do  not 
spring  from  the  matter  of  revelation  as  it  respects  the  being, 
subsistence,  and  will  of  the  ever-blessed  God;  his  purposes, 
his  permission  of  this  or  that  course  of  things,  his  choice  of 
this  or  that  method  of  recovering  man.  These  are  quite  out 
of  our  sight.  We  have  no  data  to  proceed  upon,  and  there- 
fore can  know  nothing.  They  are  of  the  nature  of  discov- 
eries, and  are  made  to  us  from  a  system  of  things  of  which 
an  infinite  Being  is  the  author."  We  receive  these  implic- 
itly on  the  footing  of  the  external  evidence,  and  there  we 
leave  them;  except  as  any  inferences  drawn  from  them  may 
bear  upon  our  duty  and  hopes. 

But  internal  evidence  arises  from  the  matter  of  revelation 
as  it  respects  the  suitableness  of  the  religion,  in  its 
practical  bearings,  to  the  obvious  wants  of  man: ''  as  it  re- 
gards the  display  of  the  moral  attributes  of  the  Supreme 
Being  in  the  doctrines  revealed;  '   as  it  appears  in  the 

EXCELLENCY    OF    THE    RULE    OF    MORAL    DUTV;J    aS  it  is  bchcld 

in  the  inimitable  example  of  our  lord;  '^  as  it  is  viewed  in 
the  TENDENcr  OF  revelation  to  promote  in  the  highest 

DEGREE  HUMAN  HAPPINESS;  '  aS  it  prOpOSCS  A  TEST  TO  WHICH 
EVERY  ONE  MAY  BKING  IT,  BY  SUBMITTING  TO  ITS  DIREC- 
TIONS,   AND    MAKING    A     TRIAL    OF    ITS    PROMISED    BLESSINGS.  ™ 

In  these  respects  v.-e  have  data  to  go  upon.  We  have 
feelings;  we  are  capable  of  judging  in  some  respects  of 
moral  causes  and  consequences;  we  have  means  of  tracing 
out  the  same  indications  of  divine  wisdom,  the  same  holy 
ends  and  contrivances  in  the  gospel,  as  we  find  in  the  gen- 
eral providential  government  of  God  in  the  world.  We 
arc  thus  applying  the  revelation  to  its  proper  purposes,  con- 
sidering it  according  to  its  own  principles  and  structure, 
and  advancing  in  our  knowledge  and  atlmiration  of  its  vari- 
rious  parts. 

This  evidence  is  most  important.  It  might  indeed  have 
pleased  God,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  to  give  us  a  revelation 

(g)  Davison.  (li)  Present  Lecture.  (i)  Lect.  xv.  (.j)  Lect.  xvi. 

(k)  Lccl.  xvii.  (1)  Led.  xviii.  (ni)  Lect.  xix.  and  xxi. 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  29 

SO  elevated  in  all  its  parts,  as  to  furnish  no  internal  evidences, 
or  very  slight  ones,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  now  under- 
stand the  term.  We  should  have  been  still  obliged  to  re- 
ceive and  obey  it  with  humble  thankfulness,  and  wait  for 
the  reasons  of  things  in  a  future  world.  But  it  has  pleased 
God  to  grant  us  a  revelation,  from  many  branches  of  which 
internal  testimonies  flow  in  rich  abundance;  and  we  have 
only  to  put  them  in  their  due  place,  and  use  them  for  their 
proper  ends,  in  order  to  derive  all  the  advantages  they  were 
designed  to  convey- 

The  external  evidences  are  first  in  point  of  time,  and 
superior  in  respect  of  authority;  they  are  as  the  outward 
credcndials  of  an  act  of  a  human  legislature,  proving  the 
source  whence  it  emanates,  and  the  obligation  which  it  im- 
poses. 

The  internal  evidences  are  second  in  point  of  time,  and 
subsidiary  as  it  regards  the  divine  authority  of  revelation — 
they  spring  from  the  excellent  and  appropriate  contents  of 
the  law   itself 

But  though  the  internal  proofs  are  second  in  point  of 
time,  they  have  a  force  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  such  as 
no  human  laws  can  possess.  For  as  revelation  proceeds 
from  the  infinitely  wise  God,  and  relates  to  the  eternal  sal- 
vation of  mankind,  the  matter  of  it  must  have  a  perfection 
and  an  interest  far  surpassing  all  that  the  wisest  acts  of 
human  legislation  can  possess. 

The  internal  evidences,  in  fact,  raise  us  from  the  mere 
conviction  of  truth,  to  the  love  and  admiration  of  it.  The 
external  proofs  are  addressed  to  mankind  generally,  to 
awaken  their  attention;  the  internal,  to  disciples  who  have 
already  received  the  religion,  and  have  a  confidence  in  all 
its  declarations.  The  external  evidences  prove  that  the  re- 
ligion is  obligatory;  the  internal  show  that  it  is  good.  The 
one  attests  the  authority  of  the  divine  Legislator;  the  other 
proves  to  us  the  wisdom  and  efiicacy  of  his  enactments. 

The  internal  evidences  are,  therefore,  in  some  respects, 
of  a  more  satisfactory  kind,  and  bring  more  repose  to  the 
inmost  soul  of  man  than  the  external.  The  one  makes  an 
impression  upon  the  understanding  through  the  medium  of 


30  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XIV. 

the  senses;  the  other  upon  the  heart,  by  means  of  its  best 
aftections  and  hopes.  To  know  that  a  revelation  is  come 
from  God,  is  one  thing;  to  perceive  its  divine  excellency, 
and  feel  its  salutary  eftects,  is  another. 

The  internal  evidences  are  also  more  intelligible  to  the 
great  mass  of  Christians.  They  can  understand,  indeed, 
sufficiently,  as  we  have  shown,  the  external  evidences. 
When  the  case  is  laid  before  them  on  the  testimony  of  the 
great  body  of  learned  and  enlightened  men,  whom  they  are 
accustomed,  in  all  their  most  important  concerns,  to  trust, 
they  can  perceive  the  general  force  of  the  accumulated  and 
uncontradicted  facts.  Still  they  cannot  receive  fully  and 
adequately  all  the  parts  of  the  question,  because  this  re- 
quires a  preparation  of  historical  knowledge,  habits  of  criti- 
cal inquiry,  and  a  good  acquaintance  with  the  general  laws  of 
reasoning  and  the  course  of  events  throughout  the  different 
ases  of  time.  But  to  understand  and  feel  the  internal  evi- 
dences,  demands  only  a  sincere  and  lowly  mind.  The  hum- 
blest peasant  can  discern,  in  the  starry  firmament,  the  marks 
of  the  wisdom  and  glory  of  God;  though  the  philosopher 
alone  can  demonstrate  the  laws  of  the  planetary  system. 

Nor  is  there  any  thing  more  calculated  to  confirm  the 
faith  of  young  persons,  and  fix  them  in  the  love  and  obe- 
dience of  the  gospel,  than  a  persuasion  of  the  unspeakable 
excellency  of  the  matter  of  it.  For,  though  we  ought  to 
receive  with  implicit  belief  a  revelation  which  is  once 
proved  to  have  come  from  God;  yet,  such  is  the  nature  of 
man,  he  always  follows  what  he  considers  to  be  good,  rather 
than  what  he  is  merely  convinced  to  be  true. 

The  internal  evidences,  therefore,  are  amongst  the  chief 
inducements  to  faith  in  every  age.  It  is  indeed  an  unspeak- 
able act  of  divine  goodness,  ficst  to  surround  Revelation 
with  the  majestic  glories  of  miracles  and  propehcics;  and 
to  fix  immovably  our  faith  afterwards,  by  the  display  of  all 
its  softer  moral  beauties  of  holiness  and  grace. 

Infidelity  will  never  be  silenced  in  Christian  countries,  till 
we  unite  more  closely  the  internal  with  the  external  eviden- 
ces— till  we  honor  God  in  the  excellencies  of  his  revelation 
— till   wo  make  the  extrinsic  an  entrance  to  the  intrinsic 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  31 

proofs — till,  having  shown  men  the  elevation  and  proportions 
of  tiic  Temple  from  vvitiiout,  we  display  to  them  the  beau- 
ties of  its  structure  and  use  from  within.  The  two  branches 
of  proof  leave  men,  where  Christianity  when  first  promul- 
gated left  them — convinced  of  the  authority  of  Revelation 
by  the  miracles  and  prophecies,  and  then  contemplating 
and  adoring  the  infinite  perfections  of  its  contents. 

We  proceed,  then,  to  consider  the  first  branch  of  Inter- 
nal Evidences, 

The  suitableness  of  the  christian  revelation  to 
the  obvious  state  and  wants  of  man  as  an  ignorant 
and   sinful  creature. 

Contrivance  for  the  benefit  of  man,  pervades  the  works 
of  God  in  creation.  The  world  was  made  for  such  a  being 
as  man,  and  no  other.  The  order  of  the  seasons,  the  neces- 
sity of  labor  and  forethought  to  make  the  earth  fruitful;  the 
warnings — tlic  natural  warnings — given  us  of  the  conse- 
quences of  such  and  such  conduct;  the  prospective  arrange- 
ments and  compensations  apparent  in  the  daily  order  of  hu- 
man events,  are  parts  of  God's  moral  government  which  are 
adapted  to  man,  to  his  accountableness  to  his  capacities  of 
observation,  to  his  various  faculties  and    powers. 

The  natural  world,  also,  is  suited  to  his  peculiar  wants 
and  his  means  of  receiving  knowledge:  the  light  is  adapted 
to  his  eye — the  beauties  around  him  to  his  perceptions  of 
pleasure — the  products  of  the  earth,  to  his  various  appe- 
tites and  necessities — the  remedies  with  which  nature 
abounds,  to  his  diseases. 

All  is  adaptation  to  his  circumstances,  in  the  world  around 
him  and  in  the  providential  government  of  God:  all  aficcts 
his  relation  with  other  men  as  a  moral  and  social  being — 
all  has  an  intluence  on  the  principle  of  self-preservation, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  implanted  in  his  breast  by  the 
Almighty. 

Man  perceives  and  admires  tliis  suitableness:  it  is  one  of 
the  noblest  offices  of  philosophy  to  point  out  the  particular 
indications  of  it.  In  proportion  as  these  are  more  clear 
and  express,  as  they  converge  from  more  distant  and  un- 


32  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XIV. 

looked-lbr  quarters,  and  bear  more  directly  upon  man's 
happiness,  is  the  evidence  of  divine  contrivance. 

In  Hke  manner,  it  will  be  found,  that  in  the  matter  and 
form  of  divine  revelation,  there  is  an  adaptation  as  clear,  as 
widely  spread  over  all  the  parts  of  it,  as  various  and  impor- 
tant in  its  bearings  upon  human  happiness;  converging  from 
points  as  distant  and  unlocked  for,  as  in  the  works  of  the 
same  divine  Architect  in  creation.  The  book  of  nature 
and  the  book  of  revelation  are  written  by  the  same  hand, 
and  bear  evident  traces  of  the  same  manner  and  style."  So 
that  as  the  performances  of  a  great  painter  are  recognized 
by  a  similarity  of  outline  and  coloring,  and  by  other  pecul- 
iarities of  his  art;  the  books  of  nature  and  Christianity  are 
recognized  as  performances  of  the  same  divine  Artist,  by 
the  similarity  of  adaptation  and  contrivance,  for  the  facul- 
ties and  wants  of  the  beings  for  whose  use  they  were  de- 
signed. 

The  Christian  revelation,  then,  is  suited  to  man,  as  it 
speaks  a  decisive  language,  and  gives  repose  to  the  mind 
in  the  most  perplexing  difficulties — as  it  unfolds  the  mys- 
teries OF  his  condition — as  it  pro\ndcs  a  remedy  for 
all  his  wants — and  as  it  is  calculated  for  universal  dif- 
fusion. 

I.  The  Bible  is  suited  to  man  as  it  speaks  a  clear 
and  decisive  language,  and  gives  repose  and  satisfac- 
tion to  the  mind  of  man  in  the  greatest  and  most 
perplexing   difficulties. 

No  mark  of  adaptation  can  be  stronger  than  the  obvious 
fitness  of  revelation,  in  its  contents  generally,  to  the  state 
and  wants  of  those  to  whom  it  is  sent.  What  sort  of  a  book 
is  the  BibleP  In  what  sort  of  manner  does  it  address  us.''  On 
what  kind  of  topics  does  it  treat.''  What  doubtful  things 
does  it  compose  and  settle.'*  What  peace  docs  it  bring  to 
the  mind  agitated  witli  conflicting  o[)inions  and  disturbed 
with  inward  remorse.'' — These  are  the  questions  which  must 
naturally  arise. 

The  answer  is,  the  Bible  determines  all  the  points  essen- 
tial to  man's  happiness;  and  determines  them  with  so  much 

(n)  J.  Scott. 


LECT.  XIV.]  RVIDKNCES    OP    CHRISTIANITV.  33 

clearness  and  decision,  as  to  exempt   him  from  doubt  and 

fluctuation,  and  give  repose  to  his  inmost  desires. 

Man  was  wandering  in  the  darkness  of  nature.    The  fiint 

traces  of  an  original  revelation  were  ahiiost  lost.     Endless 

disputes  without  authority,  and  perplexities  without  a  clue, 

bewildered    him.     Nothing   was  settled,  even    about    the 

existence  of  God,  or  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  or  a  future 

state. 

In  the  midst  of  this  confusion,  Revelation  comes  in  and 

silences,  with  tiic  authority  of  a  master,  the  hahbJings  of  sci- 
ence falsely  so  called."  It  disputes  not,  it  condescends  not  to 
reason  with  man:  it  decides.  This  is  exactly  what  man, 
after  four  thousand  years  of  interminable  contests,  wanted. 
The  authority  which  revelation  claims  by  its  external  evi- 
dences is  thus  in  harmony  with  the  tone  and  language  which 
it  assumes  in  its  instructions.  You  are  astonished  at  the 
display  of  the  miracles — you  view  with  surprise  the  other 
proofs  of  a  divine  religion.  You  open  the  sacred  Record. 
You  are  assured  beforehand  that  it  will  be  most  worthy  of 
the  great  God  from  whom  it  came,  though  you  presume 
not  to  say  in  what  manner  that  will  appear.  On  making 
yourself  acquainted  with  the  contents  of  it,  you  perceive 
that  it  uses  tiic  natural  language  and  style  of  its  divine 
Author;  you  seem  to  hear  the  very  voice  of  God  himself.  You 
feel  that  the  revelation  takes  the  becoming  attitude  of 
superiority  and  command;  and  addresses  you  as  an  ignor- 
ant, weak,  dependent  creature. 

This  is  altogether  different  from  the  style  of  any  other 
book.  This  is  quite  distinct  from  the  arrogancy  of  human 
presumption,  as  well  as  from  the  uncertainties  of  human 
reasoning.  All  is  as  it  should  be:  God  speaks;  man  is  silent 
— God  teaches;  man  learns — God  determines,  man  obeys. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  read  a  single  discourse  of  the 
holy  prophets  in  the  Old  Testament,  or  of  our  Lord  and  his 
apostles  in  the  New,  without  feeling  that  they  sj)eak  as  those 
having  aulhorili/,  aiul  not  as  the  scriOesA' 

The  great  principles  of  natural  or  essential  religion  arc 
supposed  to  be  known.     The  being  of  one  Almighty  and 

(o)  1  Tim.  vi.  20.  (\>)  Matt,  vii.29. 

5 


34  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XIV. 

perfect  God—  the  creation  of  the  world  by  liim  out  of  noth- 
ing— the  immortal  and  accountable  nature  of  man — a 
future  state  of  rewards  and  punishment — the  obligation  of 
loving,  worshipping,  and  obeying  God — the  several  branch- 
es of  duty  to  our  fellow-creatures:  these  principles  revela- 
tion scarcely  ever  formally  declares,  much  less  stops  to 
prove.  It  looks  on  them  as  known — it  considers  them  as 
sufliciently  established  by  the  works  of  creation,  the  frag- 
ments of  man's  moral  nature,  the  tradition  of  the  original 
revelation,  the  voice  of  conscience.  It  goes  on  to  some- 
thing further.  It  proceeds  to  teach  men  lessons  of  its  own, 
which  may  bring  into  action  these  princii)les  of  natural 
religion,  clear  up  their  imperfections,  and  give  them  a  new 
force  and  application.  Revelation  begins  where  nature 
ends. 

In  doing  this,  revelation  preserves  an  uniform  dignity  and 
authority,  springing  from  its  innate  truth,  and  bearing  the 
impress  of,  what  it  really  is,  the  Great  God  teaching  his 
creature  man.  It  passes  over  inferior  matters.  It  deigns 
not  to  notice  the  interests  of  earth,  the  politics  of  princes, 
the  petty  projects  of  legislation.  It  treats  only  of  the  great- 
est and  most  important  concerns.  It  is  God's  book;  and 
contains  nothing  trifling,  nothing  unimportant,  nothing 
superfluous.  It  speaks  of  eternity  and  eternal  things.  It 
reveals  pardon  and  grace;  it  marks  out  the  ways  of  peace  and 
holiness.  It  shows  exactly  those  things  which  it  most  con- 
cerns us  to  know,  and  which  we  could  never  understand 
nor  settle  of  ourselves. 

Now  all  tliis  is  exactly  adapted  to  man.  He  is  weak, 
ignorant,  sinful;  distracted  with  conflicting  opinions,  and 
wandering  in  the  darkness  and  sorrows  which  his  rebellion 
has  occasioned.  Still  ho  is  accountable.  As  such,  the 
Scripture  addresses  him:  so  that  no  other  creature  but  man 
could  understand  such  a  book  as  the  Bible. 

It  is  to  him,  however,  the  precise  Revelation  he  needs. 
He  finds  peace  of  mind  in  its  authoritative  dictates.  He 
feels  the  ground  firm  under  him.  He  flics  from  human  con- 
jecture and  the  intricacies  of  opposing  systems,  to  repose 
in  the  authority  of  the  Bible.     Man,  when  his  attention   is 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  35 

awakened  to  the  subject,  knows  in  his  inmost  soul  that  he 
wants  direction — he  knows  that  to  make  out  truth  for  himself, 
in  the  way  of  discussion,  is  impossible.  Though,  when  at- 
tacked, he  will  defend  his  powers  of  understanding,  and 
liberty  of  directing  his  own  path,  yet  he  is  sensible  of  his 
weakness;  and,  when  he  speaks  the  real  language  of  his 
heart,  says,  "What  I  want  is  a  sure  and  unerring  guide." 
When  Revelation,  then,  comes  to  him  with  the  credentials 
of  outward  evidences,  and  speaks  to  him  in  the  tone  of  au- 
thority and  decision,  he  follows  her  directions,  as  those  of  a 
friend,  and  the  perturbation  and  anxieties  of  his  mind  about 
religious  truth  immediately  subside. 

A  traveller  who  has  lost  his  way  amongst  the  snows  of 
the  Alps,  doth  not  more  rejoice  when  he  meets  an  experi- 
enced guide,  who  shows  him  the  credentials  of  his  appoint- 
ment to  that  office  by  the  lord  of  the  country,  and  then  bids 
him  boldly  to  follow  his  steps;  than  man  rejoices,  when, 
bewildered  in  the  mazes  of  human  reasonings,  he  meets  with 
the  autliorized  guide  of  life,  and,  having  seen  his  creden- 
tials, is  invited  to  follow  him  without  distrust,  till  he  is 
extricated  from  the  labyrinth  of  error  and  sin. 

II.  But  Christianity  is  suitable  to  man,  because  it  un- 
folds ALL  THE  MYSTERIES  OF  HIS  CONDITION,  ACCOUNTS 
FOR  THE  APPARENT  CONTRADICTION  OF  HIS  STATE,  AND 
ADDRESSES    HIM    IN    THIS    CONDITION,    AND    NO    OTHER. 

1.  If  the  matter  of  Revelation  be  adapted  to  his  igno- 
rance and  weakness,  because  it  speaks  with  decision  and 
treats  of  the  most  important  concerns;  it  is  also  equally 
adapted  to  his  perplexities  and  anxieties,  because  it  tells 
him  the  mysteries  of  his  state  in  this  world,  opens  to  him 
all  his  character,  and  explains  the  whole  of  his  circumstan- 
ces, difficulties,  and  miseries.  Tiiis  is  a  step  in  the  adaptation 
yet  higher  and  more  important,  because  it  touches  him  more 
nearly,  and  is  more  out  of  the  reach  of  unassisted  reason. 

The  Heathen  philosophy  can  give  no  consistent  account 
of  man's  actual  history.  It  guesses,  but  it  cannot  explain. 
Something  it  knows  of  his  weaknesses,  his  sorrows,  his  cor- 
ruptions, his  tendencies  to  evil,  the  contradictions  between 
his  reason     and     his    passions — but     nothing    adequately, 


36  LECTURKS    ON    THE  [lECT.   XIV. 

nothing  distinctly,  nothing  as  to  the  source  and  extent  of  the 
evil,  nothing  definitely  as  to  the  original  purity  and  subse- 
quent fall  of  man,  nothing  as  to  the  Divine  image  in  which 
he  was  created  and  which  he  lost  by  sin,  nothing  of  the 
proper  end  of  man,  the  enjoyment  of  God. 

Accordingly,  all  was  contradiction  and  confusion.  The 
satirists  seized  some  fragments  of  truth;  the  poets,  the  ora- 
tors, the  statesmen,  the  philosophers,  other  points.  Fables 
of  the  golden,  silver,  and  iron  ages  were  framed.  Men  ap- 
plied themselves,  now  to  the  dignity  and  love  of  truth  which 
seemed  latent  in  human  nature;  and  now  to  the  passions 
and  appetites  which  actually  governed  and  controlled  it. 
Reason  and  sensual  pleasure  divided  the  schools  of  learn- 
ing. An  unnatural  pride  and  apathy,  in  opposition  to  all 
his  tender  and  social  propensities — or  a  sensual  indulgence, 
which  contradicted  his  aspirations  after  intellectual  and 
moral  excellence,  prevailed  in  the  doctrines  of  the  sages. 

Revelation  comes  in  and  explains  every  thing — solves 
the  enigma,  casts  a  strong,  clear  light  upon  the  history  of 
man,  tells  him  all  his  condition,  and  treats  with  him  as  in 
that  condition,  and  no  other. 

The  two  facts  which  it  reveals — first,  the  original  dignity 
and  uprightness  of  man,  formed  after  the  image  of  his  Crea- 
tor, and  designed  for  knowing,  loving,  worshipping,  obeying, 
and  enjoying  him  for  ever — and  then  the  fall  of  man,  and 
the  loss  of  his  Maker's  favor  and  image,  by  sin,  with  the 
disorder,  blindness,  corruption,  and  rebellion  which  ensued 
— these  two  facts  unfold  at  once  all  the  phenomena. 

The  loose  fabric  of  human  conjectures  cannot  hold  to- 
gether. Fables  about  a  primeval  and  a  deteriorated  state 
are  of  no  value  to  mankind.  But  the  distinct  and  authorita- 
tive narrative  of  the  Bible — its  account  of  our  first  right- 
eousness and  subsequent  apostacy, — given,  not  in  confu^-cd 
and  general  terms,  but  historically,  and  in  detail,  with  the 
conse<iuences  arising  from  them,  and  in  connexion  with  the 
highest  practical  purposes — the  moment  these  facts  are 
made  known  by  the  Christian  religion,  all  becomes  light. 
There  is  a  congruity  in  them  to  the  state  of  man.  Many 
points,  indeed,  remain  unexplained,  as  we    might  expect 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  37 

with  regard  to  the  will  and  conduct  of  the  ever  blessed  God- 
but  the  facts  themselves  arc  suflicicntly  revealed  for  the  de- 
signs which  the  Revelation  had  in  view. 

2.  Now  all  the  appakknt  contradictions  are  accounted 
for.  For  what  is  so  great  as  man;  and  yet  what  so  little — 
what  so  great,  if  you  mark  the  occasional  traces  of  his  orig- 
inal grandeur — what  so  little  if  you  follow  the  prevalent 
course  of  his  desires  and  conduct! 

What  so  great  as  man!  How  exalted  the  dignity  of  his 
nature  above  the  inferior  animals!  What  a  gift  is  reason! 
What  a  distinction,  speech!  What  a  thirst  he  has  for 
knowledge — what  a  desire  after  happiness — what  a  mind, 
in  some  faint  measure,  representing  the  Deity!  Whither 
cannot  his  powers  extend  themselves!  What  discoveries 
of  science,  what  inventions  in  the  arts!  What  a  thirst 
after  something  which  is  not  found  beneath  the  sun, 
after  a  good  which  lias  no  limit!  What  enlargement, 
what  constant  improvement  the  soul  is  capable  of!  In 
spite  of  all  his  misery,  he  has  a  feeling,  ti  sentiment  which 
elevates  him,  and  which  he  cannot  repress.  Nothing  satis- 
fies his  ambition  but  the  esteem  of  rational  and  intellectual 
beings.  He  burns  with  the  love  of  glory;  he  has  an  idea 
of  a  lost  happiness  which  he  seeks  in  every  thing  in  vain. 
He  is  a  dethroned  monarch,  wandering  through  a  strange 
country,  but  who  cannot  lay  aside  his  original  habits  of 
thought  and  expectation.'' 

And  yet  what  so  little  as  man!  What  contradictions  is 
this  strange  creature  daily  and  hourly  exhibiting!  As  to 
his  ends  and  capacities,  he  is  great;  as  to  his  habits,  he  is 
abject  and  vile.  His  reason  is  expansive,  comprehensive, 
elevated;  and  yet  his  passions  mean  and  uncertain  and  per- 
verse. His  mind  vast  and  noble;  his  desires  impure  and 
corrupted;  his  dissatisfaction  with  external  things  separating 
him  from  the  earth,  and  yet  his  propensities  chaining  him 
down  to  it.  His  thoughts  full  of  grandeur,  but  his  affec- 
tions narrow  and  grovelling.  In  his  aspirations,  he  rises  up 
to  angels;  in  his  vices,  he  sinks  below  tlic  brutes.     In  his 

(r)  Pascal. 


38  LFCTT'TIFS    ON    THE  [lECT.  XIV. 

conceptions  of  futurity,  immensity,  eternity,  he  is  sublime; 
in  his  follies,  pursuits,  and  desires,  he  is  limited,  degraded, 
childish.  Thus,  man  is  a  maze  and  labyrinth  to  himself, 
full  of  grandeur,  and  full  of  meanness — of  grandeur  as  to 
his  original  dignity,  as  to  the  image  of  God,  his  capacity 
for  religion,  his  longing  for  immortality,  his  thirst  of  truth, 
his  large  designs  and  projects — and  yet  low  and  debased  as 
to  his  passions,  his  changeableness,  his  pursuit  of  any  folly  or 
error,  his  degrading  pleasures  and  appetites,  his  delight  in 
sensual  things,  and  neglect  of  his  intellectual  and  moral 
nature. 

Hence  the  history  of  mankind  has  ever  presented  the 
appalling  picture  of  misery,  folly,  vice,  ignorance  triumphant, 
(except  as  Revelation  has  supplied  a  remedy,)  notwithstand- 
ing all  man's  powers  and  desires.  He  will  not  part  with 
religion,  and  yet  lives  a  slave  to  appetite;  he  will  not  forsake 
the  pursuit  of  truth,  and  yet  he  loves  a  lie.  And  whilst  ap- 
parently advancing  towards  perfection,  he  seems  also  to  be 
sinking  into  lower  depths  of  debasement.  Wars  and  con- 
tests find  perpetual  fuel  in  the  lusts  of  men,  notwithstanding 
our  experience  of  the  misery  they  occasion  and  the  unsatis- 
factoriness  of  their  most  fortunate  results.  The  most  im- 
provident courses  are  pursued,  in  spite  of  conviction  and 
warnings  and  example.  The  same  errors  are  committed  as 
to  the  nature  of  true  enjoyment,  and  the  means  by  which 
it  should  be  pursued,  which  have  been  acknowledged  and 
lamented  in  all  former  generations.  The  improvements  in 
the  sciences  and  arts  are  no  sure  omens  of  the  diminution 
of  moral  delinquency." 

3.  Now  what  can  be  a  more  striking  proof  of  adaptation 
to  the  state  of  man,  than  this  development  of  his  contradic- 
tory feelings  and  pursuits  in  every  part  of  Revelation,  and 

AN    ADDRESS    TO    IHM    I  PON    THIS    FOOTING,  and  HO    OtllCr? 

The  Bible  would  be  suited  to  no  other  creature  but  one 
fallen  from  so  great  a  height  and  sunk  into  so  deep  a  gulf. 
It  is  in  this  state  it  supposes  him  to  be.  It  is  in  this  state 
it  proposes  to  him  all  its  discoveries.  It  calls  to  him  as 
an  accountable   being,  as   having  a  conscience,  the   vice- 

(s)  Bishop  J.  Bird  Sumner. 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  39 

gerent  of  the  Almighty;  as  capable  of  eternal  happiness,  as 
formed  for  knowing  and  serving  God,  and  as  destined  to 
undergo  a  divine  judgment — and  yet  it  takes  him  up  as  he 
actually  is,  a  fallen  and  depraved  creature,  accuses  him  of  his 
sinfulness,  calls  him  to  humiliation  and  penitence,  reminds 
him  of  his  continual  weakness,  and  makes  him  dependent 
for  every  blessing  on  the  grace  and  mercy  of  God. 

Thus,  as  the  physician  proves  his  skill  and  experience  in 
treating  the  complicated  diseases  of  his  patients,  by  telling 
them  all  they  feel,  and  explaining  the  source  of  their  suffer- 
ings, anticipating  their  description  of  them,  reconciling  the 
apparent  contradictions  of  their  story,  and  suggesting  new 
points  which  tiiey  had  not  recollected — doing  all  this  in  a 
thousands  cases,  and  with  invariable  truth  of  observation. 
So  the  Bible  proves  its  claims  to  tiie  confidence  of  men,  by 
discovering  all  the  secrets  of  their  malady,  opening  to  them 
the  unobserved  depths  of  their  heart,  and  telling  them  the 
history  of  their  contradictory  feelings  and  desires,  however 
little  suspected  by  themselves. 

III.  But  further,  the  Bible  provides  a  remedy  for  all 
THE  WANTS  OF  MAN; — wlucli  though  Surprising  and  incom- 
prehensible in  many  respects,  yet  is  in  other  views  most  ex- 
actly suited  to  his  reasonable  and  accountable  nature,  and 
obviously  adapted  to  his  wants  and  necessities. 

This  is,  in  fact,  the  peculiar  point  of  suitableness  in  Reve- 
lation. Every  thing  else  would  be  inferior,  distant,  unin- 
teresting, unless  as  connected  with  this.  The  Bible  not 
only  speaks  with  authority,  and  opens  the  whole  of  man's 
state,  but,  having  done  this,  provides  an  adequate  and  most 
surprising  remedy. 

If  man  be  in  the  weak,  fallen,  ignorant  condition,  which 
we  have  described;  then  the  suitableness  of  a  Revelation  is 
only  another  word  for  the  suitableness  of  the  remedy  which 
it  makes  known. 

Now,  no  other  religion  ever  proposed  to  him  any  distinct 
and  efficacious  relief.  Wiiat  did  heathenism  pretend,  with 
its  contemptible  deities  and  its  unmeaning  ablutions  and 
rites!  It  was  calculated,  no  doubt,  to  fall  in  with  the  uni- 
versal impression  on  man's  heart  that  he  needed  some  guide 


40  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XIV. 

for  divine  worship,  and  some  atonement  for  sin;  but  it  gave 
no  specific  information,  and  ofl'ered  no  adequate  succor. 

The  prominent  discovery  of  Revelation  is,  that  pardon 
and  grace,  light  and  strength,  hope  and  joy,  life  and  salva- 
tion, are  made  known  in  the  mercy  of  God  our  heavenly 
Father.  A  dispensation  of  grace  by  the  Son  and  Spirit  of 
God  is  the  glory  of  the  gospel,  and  constitutes  it  those 
good  tidings  of  great  joy  ^  which  precisely  suit  the  extreme 
misery  of  our  state. 

This  remedy  is  adapted  for  man  in  this  important  respect, 
that  it  not  only  prescribes  a  rule  of  duty,  but  provides  for 
the  pardon  of  former  transgression,  and  furnishes  strength 
and  motive  for  future  obedience.  This  is  altogether  new 
and  peculiar  to  the  Christian  religion.  Other  religions  pre- 
scribe, invite,  threaten — but  this  j)ardons,  renews,  changes 
the  state  and  disposition.  Other  religions  deal  with  man 
on  the  footing  of  his  own  powers,  and  make  the  best  they 
are  able  of  his  circumstances — Christianity  brings  in  a  new 
power,  creates  new  circumstances,  gives  new  life  and  feel- 
ings and  pursuits,  reveals  new  and  divine  agents  for  effect- 
ing man's  salvation,  presents  a  foundation  of  forgiveness  in 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  opens  a  way  for  obedience  in  the 
direct  help  and  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

All  this  is  so  congruous  to  the  precise  exigencies  of  man, 
as  to  constitute  a  summary  argument,  requiring  no  detail  of 
proof,  of  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity.  It  so  com- 
pletely answers  the  case — it  so  meets  the  very  necessities 
and  desires  which  men  in  every  age  have  expressed,  though 
incapable  of  devising  any  means  of  satisfyinir  them,  that  it 
carries  along  with  it  a  perfect  conviction  of  its  truth. 

It  is  true,  this  remedy  is  most  surprising  and  incompre- 
hensible in  many  respects — but  this  does  not  lessen  its  suit- 
ableness nor  its  admirable  eflicacy,  as  it  is  praticably  fitted 
for  the  relief  of  man's  wants.  It  is  surprising,  it  is  stupen- 
dous, as  wc  shall  have  to  notice  in  our  next  lecture.  But 
the  Revelation  being  clearly  admitted  on  its  undoubted  ex- 
ternal testimony,  all  the  matter  of  it  rests  on  the  truth  of 

(t)  Luke  i.  14. 


LECT.   XIV.]  KVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITy.  41 

that  God  that  cannot  lie;  and  the  subsidiary  proofs,  from 
the  suitableness,  in  some  respects,  of  its  mode  of  supplying 
our  wants,  are  in  no  way  lessened  by  its  stupendous  or  in- 
comprehensible character  in  other  points  of  view.  For 
there  are  not  wanting  topics  of  observable  suitableness  to 
the  reasonable  and  unaccountable  nature  of  man,  in  the 
application  of  this  great  remedy. 

1.  The  gospel  works  by  proposing  adequate  motives. 
It  opens  to  man  all  his  real  danger,  and  excites  fear.  It 
proposes  divine  encouragement,  and  inspires  hope.  It  sets 
before  him  the  terror  of  judgment,  and  the  joys  of  heaven; 
and  awakens  correspondent  anxiety  and  apprehension  of 
consequences.  It  invites  man  to  repentance  and  salvation, 
by  presenting  to  him  new  truths,  new  facts,  new  assistances, 
new  prospects.  All  is  intelligent  motive,  addressed  to  a 
reasonable  being.  The  stupendous  redemption,  in  its  par- 
don and  its  grace,  places  him  in  a  situation,  and  discloses 
to  him  circumstances,  which  move  and  actuate  his  deter- 
minations and  efforts. 

2.  Further,  it  places  man  in  a  new  and  more  favorable 
STATE  OF  PROBATION — a  State  whoUy  different  from  that  in 
which  he  was  before  the  revelation  of  Christianity,  because 
then  a  hopeless  degeneracy  rendered  his  condition  on  earth, 
not  so  much  one  of  probation,  as  of  gloomy  forebodings 
and  dark  despair.  But  now  man  is  by  the  gospel  raised  to 
hope,  and  is  called  on  to  follow  the  bright  prospects  open- 
ed before  him.  Invitations,  warnings,  calls  to  repentance, 
denunciations  against  pride  and  unbelief,  proposals  of  re- 
conciliation, are  addressed  to  him.  He  is  told  that  his  state 
hereafter  is  to  depend  on  his  manner  of  i)assing  this  proba- 
tion, receiving  these  offers,  and  accepting  this  salvation.  In 
short,  just  as  God's  natural  government  places  iiim  in  a 
state  of  probation  as  to  the  duties  and  happiness  of  this 
life;  so  does  the  dispensation  of  the  gospel,  as  to  spiritual 
and  eternal  blessings." 

3.  Then  it  proposes  to  man  a  system  of  means  adapted 
to  his  powers  and  faculties.  He  is  to  obtain  grace  and 
help  in  the  use  of  certain  methods  of  instruction,  appointed 

(u)  Duller. 


42  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XIV. 

for  that  end,  by  Almighty  God.  The  reading  of  the  holy 
Scriptures,  the  public  and  private  worship  of  God,  the  sac- 
raments, the  formation  of  habits,  abstinence  from  scenes  of 
temptation,  the  society  and  converse  and  example  of  the 
pious;  these,  and  similar  things,  are  the  means  which  Chris- 
tianity sets  before  him.  Into  the  design  of  this  system  of 
means  he  must  fall.  He  can  obtain  no  grace,  no  divine  aid, 
no  relief,  no  pardon,  no  renewal  of  mind,  no  direction,  no 
comfort,  except  as  he  heartily  and  humbly  places  himself  in 
the  attitude  of  a  diligent  disciple.  This  is  altogether  and 
most  remarkably  adapted  for  such  a  creature  as  man,  and 
precisely  agrees  with  all  the  dealings  of  God  with  him  in 
his  general  providence,  where  little  is  accomplished  but  by 
the  intervention  of  means. 

God,  indeed,  acts  according  to  his  own  merciful  will,  in 
the  ways  of  religion  as  in  the  operations  of  nature  and  the 
works  of  providence.  He  gives  grace,  he  awakens  the 
minds  of  men,  he  disposes  of  events  as  he  pleases.  But  all 
this  is  designed  to  bring  us  to  use  the  means  of  religious 
improvement,  which  we  were  neglecting.  Every  extraor- 
dinary operation  of  mercy  falls  into  the  system  by  which 
God  ordinarily  works. 

4.  These  methods  of  Almighty  God  in  the  application  of 
the  gospel,  entirely  agree  with  the  outward  cikcumstances 
OF  MAN,  IN  THIS  woKLD.  Evcry  thing  around  us  corres- 
ponds with  this  particular  plan. 

The  world  is  so  presented  to  man,  his  duties  so  arise,  his 
trials  so  embarrass,  his  social  aftections  so  excite  him;  he  is 
exposed  to  that  interchange  of  peace  and  trouble,  of  dis- 
satisfaction and  repose,  of  solicitation  and  forebodings — 
that  he  is  manifestly  in  a  state  of  things  adapted  to  this 
probationary  operation  of  the  gospel  and  this  system  of 
means.  All  is  unintelligible  without  the  facts  of  the  great 
remedy  of  salvation  in  its  moral  working — all  is  clear  and 
consistent  with  them. 

5.  Once  more.  The  remedy  we  are  considering,  both  in  its 
stupendous  features,  and  in  its  method  of  operation,  is  cal- 
culated to  DRAW    OUT    TO  the    UTMOST    ALL  THE    POWERS  AND 

FACULTIES  OF  MAN.     It  addrcsscs   his  heart;   it  works  upon 


LECT.    XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF      CHRISTIANITY.  43 

him  by  the  discovery  of  immense  love  in  Almighty  God  giving 
his  own  Son  for  him.  It  presents  God  as  a  father  in  all  his 
benignity,  his  grace,  iiis  pity,  his  long  sullering. 

Now  nothing  can  fully  unlock  the  powers  of  the  human 
heart  but  love — whatever  addresses  powerfully  man's  affec- 
tions, in  connection  with  the  discovery  of  elevating  truth 
to  the  understanding,  raises  him  to  the  utmost  effort — terror 
drives  him  in  upon  himself — gratitude  and  love  draw  him 
out  into  voluntary  and  persevering  enterprise. 

Npw  the  remedy  of  the  Bible  restores  man  by  presenting 
God  as  a  father,  a  friend,  a  compassionate  and  gracious 
sovereign,  stooping  with  infinite  condescension  to  succour 
and  save  his  creature. 

Thus  all  the  faculties  of  man  are  carried  out  to  the  ut- 
most. He  has  the  very  thing  proposed  to  him  which  suits 
his  nature,  which  excites  his  whole  soul,  which  makes  him 
most  active  and  energetic  in  the  noblest  of  all  pursuits.' 

6.  Thus  it  CAHuiEs  him  on  to  his  true  end — an  end, 
not  narrow  and  earthly  and  debasing — but  the  highest,  the 
most  pure,  the  most  ennobling  that  can  be  conceived — an 
end  which  man  never  could  have  discovered,  and  which 
nothing  but  the  divine  condescension  and  grace  in  redemp- 
tion could  have  devised  or  made  practicable.  It  makes  the 
ever-blessed  Creator  the  end  of  his  creature — it  presents 
God  as  the  centre  of  felicity. — It  sets  before  man  (he  pur- 
suit of  God's  favor,  the  preparation  for  the  enjoyment  of 
God,  the  hope  of  a  slate  permanent,  exalted,  glorious — as 
the  end  to  which  he  must  direct  all  his  powers;  and,  in  do- 
ing so,  the  gospel  falls  in  exactly  with  his  nature  and  its 
capacities  as  originally  formed  by  the  divine  wisdom. 

What  an  adaptation,  then,  appears  in  this  peculiar  dis- 
covery of  Revelation.  A  remedy  of  any  kind,  and  work- 
ing in  any  way,  would  make  the  Bible  suited  to  man — suited 
is  too  weak  a  term — a  remedy  would  make  the  Bible  the  glori- 
ous, joyful  tidings  of  salvation  to  man.  But  the  remedy  is  yet 
enhanced  in  all  its  bearings  upon  him,  when,  though  stupen- 
dous in  some  views,  it  yet,  in  others,  meets  his  reasonable 
and  responsible  nature,  works  by  motives,  places  him  in  a 
state  of  probation,  proposes  a  system  of  means,  corresponds 

(v)  Erskine. 


44  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XIV. 

witii  his  actual  situation  in  the  world,  draws  out  all  Jiis  fac- 
ulties, and  carries  him  on  to  his  highest  end. 

IV.     But  further,  the   Bible   is  adapted  for  man,  because 

it     is     CALCULATEn      FOR     UNIVERSAL     DIFFUSION     UNDER     ALL 
THE      ENDLESS    DIVERSITIES     OF     HIS     STATE     AND    CHARACTER; 

and  this  as  well  in  matter  as  in  manner. 

For  when  we  turn  from  considerations  like  the  preceding 
ones,  which  relate  to  the  Ciiristian  religion  in  its  most  gen- 
eral aspects,  as  speaking  with  a  tone  of  decision  and  au- 
thority, as  unfolding  all  the  difficulties  of  our  situation,  and 
as  discovering  an  adequate  and  surprising  remedy  for  our 
misery;  when  we  turn  from  all  this  to  a  view  of  Christianity 
in  the  form  of  its  communications — when  we  ask,  Is  the 
religion  suited  to  man  generally;  man  in  all  ages,  man  un- 
der all  circumstances;  in  a  word,  is  it  meant  for  universal 
diflusion? — we  find  that,  both  in  the  matter  and  manner  of 
Revelation,  there  is  a  remarkable  correspondence  with  the 
state  and  wants  of  the  whole  human  race. 

1.  For  as  to  the  jiattek,  it  has  little  in  it  that  is  pecu- 
liar, exclusive,  local,  temporary.  Its  last  dispensation,  the 
Christian,  is  not,  like  the  religion  of  Paganism,  or  the  im- 
posture of  Mahomet,  modelled  for  a  particular  people,  and 
the  vices  and  habits  prevalent  amongst  them.  It  is  not 
even  like  the  limited  and  introductory  religion  of  Judaism. 
It  is  adapted  for  man,  as  man,  in  the  essential  powers  and 
faculties  of  his  nature.  It  is  suited  for  him  every  where, 
and  under  all  circumstances,  by  the  authority  of  its  dictates, 
by  the  discovery  of  all  his  wants,  by  the  magnitude  and 
efficacy  of  its  salvation,  by  the  clearness  and  force  of  its 
evidences,  by  the  simplicity  of  its  worship,  by  the  brevity  of 
its  records. 

It  especially  consults  the  case  of  the  poor — that  is  of  the 
vast  majority  of  mankind:  the  class  most  pressed  by  alllic- 
tion,  most  in  need  of  means  of  instruction,  most  numerous, 
most  neglected  and  even  scorned  by  all  preceding  relig- 
ions— which  philosophy  overlooks,  because  it  has  nothing 
essentially  beneficial  to  propose,  and  no  plain  and  impor- 
tant discoveries  to  ofler.  To  the  poor  the  Saviour  came; 
amongst  the  poor  he  conversed;  to  them  he  preached  the 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIAmTY.  45 

gospel;  their  state  he  consulted.  The  Bible  elevates  the 
intellect,  enlarges  the  powers,  increases  the  happiness  of 
the  poor,  without  flattering  their  vices  or  concealing  from 
them  their  duties,  or  lifting  them  out  of  their  station.  The 
institution  of  a  day  of  repose  after  the  interval  of  six  days' 
labor,  for  the  worship  of  God,  the  contemplation  of  his  spir- 
itual, and  the  preparation  for  his  eternal,  relations  and  des- 
tinies, is  an  unspeakable  blessing,  displays  the  suitableness 
of  Revelation  to  the  powers  of  man,  needing  recreation  and 
rest  both  for  body  and  mind.  No  attempt  was  ever  made.."' 
for  raising  the  character  and  situation  of  the  poor,  without 
inspiring  [)rlde  or  relaxing  the  bonds  of  domestic  and  civil 
subjection,  but  by  the  gospel. 

The  Bible  is  suited  to  all  orders  of  intellect;  like  the 
works  of  nature,  where  the  humblest  artizan  can  trace  some 
of  those  wonders,  wliich  the  greatest  philosophers  cannot 
exhaust.  The  child  meets  with  what  suits  his  opening 
capacities;  the  old  and  experienced,  that  which  gives  tran- 
quillity and  peace  to  age. 

Then  it  follows  all  the  improvements  of  mankind  in 
learning  and  science,  in  philosophy  and  the  arts;  and  keeps 
above  and  beyond  them  all — opens  its  treasures  as  man 
advances  in  capacity  for  searching  them  out;  is  illustrated 
and  confirmed  by  every  solid  acquisition  in  human  knowl- 
edge; meets  and  suits  the  mind  of  the  savage  emerging 
into  civilization;  and  yet  soars  far  above  the  intellect  of  the 
scholar  and  the  divine  in  the  most  refined  advances  of 
society.  Like  all  the  works  of  God,  it  is  adapted  to  men  in 
every  stage  of  improvement;  and  the  more  it  is  studied,  the 
more  do  the  topics  of  admiration  multiply.  V 

There  is  also  a  completeness  in  the  Bible  for  its  proper 
end.  All  that  man's  necessities,  as  to  practical  knowledge 
and  present  aid,  require,  you  find  there;  all  the  circumstan- 
ces, all  the  duties,  all  the  emergencies,  of  man  are  consult- 
ed. It  is  completely  fitted  for  him;  having  no  omissions, 
no  redundancies,  no  defects,  no  provisions  nor  directions 
forgotten  or  left  out. 

And  yet,  with  all  this  suitableness  to  mankind  in  all  ages, 
and  under  all  circumstances,  it  seems  to  address  each  in- 


46  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XIV. 

dividual  in  particular.  The  truth  of  the  description,  the 
exact  fitness  of  the  doctrines  for  man,  are  such  that  every 
one  thinks  his  own  case  consulted.  The  Bible,  says  Mr. 
Boyle,  like  a  well-drawn  portrait,  seems  to  look  every  be- 
holder full  in  the  face.  In  fact,  it  is  the  book  made  for 
man:  not  for  man  in  this  or  that  age,  of  this  or  that  class, 
of  this  or  that  order  of  intellect,  but  man  universally,  on 
the  footing  of  those  capacities,  wants,  feelings,  which  are 
common  to  the  whole  race. 
"*—  2.  Nor  is  the  form  in  which  God  communicates  truth 
in  the  Scriptures,  less  fitted  for  us  than  the  matter. 

The  style  is  plain  and  simple.  There  is  nothing  of  sci- 
ence, nothing  of  human  research,  nothing  of  artificial  elo- 
quence. It  is  above  all  this.  It  abounds  with  figures  and 
metaphors  the  most  simple,  the  most  beautiful,  the  most 
intelligible,  the  most  congruous.  Medicine  and  agricul- 
ture, as  lord  Bacon  observes,  are  the  chief  sources  of  the 
Scripture  images — sources  open  to  man  universally. 

The  perspicuity  of  the  Bible  makes  it  level,  in  its  main 
instructions,  to  the  most  untutored  mind,  as  well  as  the 
most  refined;  whilst  the  depths  contained  in  its  mysteries, 
and  the  occasional  difBculties  of  its  allusions,  exercise  and 
surpass  the  greatest  powers.  The  variety  of  matter  in  the 
Bible  is  such  as  to  excite  and  reward  the  diligence  of  every 
inquirer. 

It  is  the  most  brief,  and  yet  the  most  full  and  copious  of 
writings;  the  most  brief,  because  it  passes  over,  for  the 
most  part,  all  inferior  matters;  the  most  copious,  because 
it  dwells  at  great  length  on  important  ones.  Two  thousand 
/■years  are  compressed  into  fifty  short  chapters;  wliilst  that 
abridged  history  expands  into  the  most  minute  details  of 
the  family  scenes  of  some  of  the  patriarchs.''  Indeed  it  de- 
lights in  domestic  narratives,  and  thus  touches  the  very 
heart  of  man  in  his  earliest  youth.  Who  has  not  we|)t  over 
the  history  of  Joseph,  and  felt  the  deepest  compassion  at 
the  aflliction  of  Job? 

(w)  Genesis — Abraham,  Jacob,  Joseph. 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  47 

It  teaches  very  much  by  great  facts  and  a  few  powerful 
principles,  applicable  to  ten  thousand  particular  cases, 
without  danger  of  mistake  from  any  individual;  and  yet  it 
occasionally  enters  into  the  detail  of  the  application  of 
them,  to  assist  the  hesitating  mind.  The  method  of  our 
Lord's  teaching,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  was  the  best 
adapted  to  man  of  any  ever  yet  discovered  for  conveying 
instruction. 

The  large  portions  of  history,  biography,  prophecy,  de- 
votion, mixed  witii  each  other,  and  interwoven  with  doc- 
trines the  most  important,  go  to  involve  truth  in  man's 
habitual  feelings,  and  convey  it  clothed  in  its  most  attrac- 
tive forms  and  applied  to  real  life. 

The  human  style  and  manner  in  which  the  divine  inspi- 
ration appeared,  following  the  cast  of  mind  of  each  writer, 
and  allowing  him  the  freest  use  of  his  natural  powers,^ 
makes  the  Book  the  book  of  man — popular  and  afi'ecting. 
The  light  of  the  natural  sun  is  not  more  adapted  for  the 
human  eye,  than  the  records  of  Revelation  for  the  mind 
and  powers  of  man. 

It  is,  however,  important  to  observe,  that  Christianity,  in 
all  this  scheme  of  adaptation,  connives  at  no  one  vice. 
It  is  not  in  agreement  with  the  vicious  inclinations  and  per- 
verted will  of  man;  but  it  is  suited  to  man  in  the  proper 
use  of  the  term;  to  man  as  originally  formed  and  des- 
tined for  eternity;  to  man  as  weak  and  fallen,  and  needing 
restoration  and  grace.  It  never  bends  to  him,  it  never 
flatters  him.  It  is  fitted,  not  to  certain  passions  of  man,  for 
certain  purposes,  and  in  a  certain  way — no  proof  of  impos- 
ture could  be  more  sure — but  to  the  whole  character  of  man 
in  all  the  parts  of  his  moral  constitution,  with  the  direct 
view  of  remedying  and  healing  what  is  corrupted  and  dis- 
eased in  him.  Heathenism,  Muhometanism,  Infidelity,  are 
adapted  to  man,  so  far  as  they  suit  his  corrupt  passions  and 
flatter  his  pride.  Christianity  is  suited  to  him  in  a  higher 
and  more  appropriate  sense — to  his  original  capacities,  to 
his  actual  state  of  want  and  sorrow,  to  his  eternal  desti- 

(x)  See  Lect.  xii.  and  xiii. 


48  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XIV. 

nics;  to  bring  him  back  to  the  first,  to  deliver  him  from  the 
second,  to  prepare  him  for  the  third. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  further,  that  this  adaptation  does  not 

STRIKE    THE    MIND    IN    ALL    ITS    PARTS    AT    ONCE;    but  appears 

after  a  period  of  consideration  and  reflection,  and  in  pro- 
portion as  we  are  in  a  right  state  forjudging  of  it. 

Some  parts,  indeed,  force  themselves  upon  our  view  at 
the  first  contemplation;  for  instance,  as  Revelation  restrains 
man,  gives  him  a  law,  reveals  his  relation  to  Almighty  God, 
and  refers  him  to  an  eternal  judgment.  But  the  main  pe- 
culiarities of  Revelation  do  not  strike  him  at  first.  The  prin- 
cipal features  and  many  of  the  details  of  Scripture  doctrine, 
precept  and  history,  would  not  have  occurred  to  him  as  proper 
to  be  made  universally  known.  Man  would  not  have  drawn 
the  picture  of  human  nature  so  dark;  he  would  never  have 
dared  to  lay  open  the  recesses  of  the  human  heart;  he  would 
not  have  left  so  much  undiscovered  of  the  ways  of  God;  he 
would  not  have  adopted  such  a  familiarity  of  style  and  illus- 
tration; he  would  not  have  exposed  the  perverseness  of  the 
chosen  nation,  nor  the  falls  and  infirmities  of  the  saints. 
He  is  revolted  at  much  of  this  at  first.  The  Revelation 
is  not  the  sort  of  record  he  would  have  expected.  Man 
would  have  preferred  something  more  grand,  more  showy, 
more  specious,  more  free  from  mystery.  He  would  have 
had  a  Revelation  more  noble  and  elevated,  according  to 
human  judgment.^' 

Such,  however,  was  not  the  wisdom  of  God.  Regardless 
of  human  prejudice,  he  has  given  a  Revelation  really, 
though  not  in  all  its  parts  apparently,  adapted  to  man.  Di- 
vine wisdom  leaves  man  to  find  this  out  by  observation,  by 
experience,  by  the  knowledge  of  his  own  wants  and  weak- 
nesses. By  degrees  he  perceives  that  God  is  wiser  than 
he:  at  length  he  acknowledges  the  adaptation  of  every  part; 
the  necessity  of  what  he  thought  less  needful;  the  depth  of 
what  he  deemed  to  be  superficial;  the  dignity  and  conde- 
scension of  what  he  considered  too  familiar;  the  suitable- 
ness of  what  he  condemned  as  peculiar  or  dangerous. 

(y)  Miller's  Bampton  Lcct. 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  49 

Again:  this  adaptation,  running  through  the  whole  con- 
texture of  Revelation,  was  not  contrived  in  these  later  ages, 

but    is    a    PROSPECTIVE    SCHEME    FORMED    BY    THE    WISDOM    OF 

God,  and  revealed  perfect  and  complete  at  once,  to 
be  developed  and  admired  as  occasion  served,  and  new 
exigences  brought  to  light  its  innate  congruity. 

Human  legislation  is  retrospective;  it  is  grounded  on 
the  experience  of  the  past:  when  it  attempts  to  reason  a  pri- 
ori on  the  future,  its  plans  are  miserably  defective,  and  soon 
become  inapplicable.  Divine  Revelation  knew  what  was 
in  man  from  the  first,  and  provided  for  it  with  unerring  care. 

The  Bible  was  not  written  after  the  arts  and  sciences  and 
civilization  had  opened  all  the  sources  of  natural  knowl- 
edge. No.  You  must  take  your  stand  with  Moses,  one 
thousand  five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  conceive 
what  was  the  prescient  wisdom  which  adapted  his  writings 
to  man  living  at  a  distance  of  three  or  four  thousand  years. 
You  must  go  back,  with  David  and  Isaiah  and  Malachi,  and 
then  estimate  the  evidence  arising  from  the  suitableness 
of  all  their  writings,  not  only  to  their  contemporaries,  but 
to  men  of  all  times.  You  must  imagine  yourselves  in  the 
company  of  apostles  and  evangelists — fishermen,  tent-ma- 
kers— and  consider  whence  they  had  that  wisdom,  which 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  years  have  served  only  to  illus- 
trate. An  adaptation  extending  so  wide,  and  appearing 
more  and  more  as  our  experience  enlarges,  and  which  yet 
was  infused  into  the  original  composition  of  the  Revelation, 
ages  before  the  occasions  could  arise  for  developing  it, 
marks  the  Divine  hand  from  which  it  came. 

Let  it  be  observed,  finally,  as  the  application  of  the 
whole  subject,  that  as  all  this  argument  rests  on  the  par- 
ticular circumstances  and  wants  of  man — is  a  considera- 
tion of  the  suitableness  of  Christianity  to  his  obvious  state 
in  this  world,  therefore, 

The  point  of  view  from  which  to  behold  this 
object  aright,  is  from  the  midst  of  human  weakness, 
misery,  and  sorrow. 

The  Bible  professes  to  be  a  remedy  for  sin  and  guilt,  for 
darkness  and  fear,  for  forebodings  of  futurity,  and  dissatis- 
7 


so  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XIV. 

faction  at  earthly  sources  of  happiness.  So  long  as  you 
think  yourself  not  of  this  number,  the  gospel  is  not  capable  of 
appearing  to  you  in  this  branch  of  its  evidence,  at  least  in 
the  most  striking  and  imi)ortant  parts  of  it,  as  emanating 
from  a  Divine  hand.' 

I  must  send  you  back  to  tlie  external  proofs,  or  allow  you 
to  dwell  on  those  palpable  and  lower  points  of  suitableness 
which  the  authority  and  the  morals  of  the  Christian  relig- 
ion present. 

When  you  begin  to  feel  aright — when,  from  the  external 
evidences  and  the  general  view  of  the  adaptation,  you  arc 
led  to  enter  practically  upon  the  business  of  your  salvation, 
to  read  what  the  Bible  says  of  your  state,  your  duties,  your 
danger,  your  obligation  to  almighty  God,  your  violation  of 
that  obligation  a  thousand  and  a  thousand  times — when  you 
begin  to  compare  those  statements  with  your  actual  state,  and 
to  pray  in  earnest  for  grace  and  direction;  that  is,  when  you 
know  and  feel  your  real  condition,  then  will  this  argument 
rise  upon  your  view.  You  will  feel  the  need  of  an  authori- 
tative guide  to  decide  upon  what  is  truth;  you  will  feel  the 
exact  correspondence  between  the  description  of  the  Bible 
and  your  own  slate;  you  will  perceive  the  magnitude  and 
appropriateness  of  the  remedy  which  it  reveals.  Thus  you 
will  stand  in  the  right  light  to  catch  the  beauty  and  perfec- 
tions of  Revelation,  which,  if  you  view  it  from  a  false  posi- 
tion, will  present  only  a  confused  mass  of  unmeaning  forms. 

I  appeal  to  those  devout  Christians  who  are  best  capable 
of  judging  of  what  is  suited  to  man  in  all  the  extent  of  his 
wants. — Tell  me  if  you  do  not  find  the  Scriptures  adapted 
to  all  your  exigencies.  Tell  me  if  this  does  not  give  it  a 
direct,  practical  authority  in  your  judgment.  Tell  me  if 
there  is  not  a  completeness  in  the  Scriptures  which  meets 
every  varied  case  under  all  imaginable  circumstances.  Tell 
me  whether,  as  life  Hows  on  and  your  experience  widens, 
this  suitableness  doth  not  appear  more  and  more  evident. 
Tell  me  whether  new  views  of  it  do  not  open  upon  you,  as 
you  arrive  at  new  points  of  prospect  in  the  journey  of  life. 

(z)  IVislio]!  Slicrlock. 


LECT.  XIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  51 

Tell  me  whether,  in  the  seasons  of  affliction,  in  the  times  of 
awakenings  of  conscience,  in  the  moments  of  reflection 
upon  your  past  life,  in  the  conflicts  of  anxiety  and  the 
forebodings  as  to  eternity; — tell  me  whether,  as  you  ascend 
the  hill,  and  approach  the  lofty  summit,  and  command  a 
wider  prospect  and  a  clearer  and  more  unclouded  horizon, 
you  do  not  behold  more  distinctly  the  adaptation  of  Chris- 
tianity to  your  state  and  wants,  to  the  real  relation  of  things, 
to  your  fears  and  sorrows,  to  your  most  importunate  inter- 
ests. Tell  me,  in  fine,  whether  the  confirmations  arising 
from  this  source,  do  not  give  to  the  proofs  arising  from 
external  evidences  a  softness  and  richness  of  persuasion,  a 
power  of  communicating  repose  and  peace  to  the  mind,  a 
perception  of  the  excellency  and  fitness  of  the  remedy  of 
the  gospel,  which  endears  it  to  your  heart,  and  raises  to  a 
demonstration  your  assurance  that  it  is  indeed  the  Revela- 
tion of  God. 


LECTURE  XV. 


THE  EXCELLENCIES  OF  THE  DOCTRINES  OF 
CHRISTIANITY. 

1  John  iv.  S— 10. 

God  is  love;  in  this  ivas  manifested  the  Jove  of  God  towards  us, 
because  that  God  sent  his  only  begotten  Son  into  the  tvorld, 
that  ice  might  live  throxigh  him.  Herein  is  love;  not  that 
we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  to  be 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins. 

Having  considered  the  general  suitableness  of  the  Chris- 
tian Revelation  to  the  obvious  state  and  wants  of  man,  we 
come  now  to  point  out  the  excellency  of  its  doctrines;  that 
is,  of  the  leading  truths  which  are  n)ade  known  to  us  on  the 
authority  of  the  religion.  Some  of  these  relate  to  the  be- 
ing and  perfections  of  the  Deity,  and  others  to  a  stupend- 
ous scheme  which  he  has  been  pleased  to  reveal  for  the 
redemption  of  man. 

Here,  then,  the  propriety  of  the  limits  to  which  we  have 
confined  the  internal  evidences  becomes  obvious.  For  of 
the  counsels  of  the  incomprehensible  God,  what  can  man, 
abstractedly  speaking,  know?  Of  the  various  methods  of 
his  dealings  with  his  creatures  in  their  fallen  state,  what 
can  human  wisdom,  of  itself,  determine?  On  such  subjects 
we  are  silent;  and  having  received  the  divine  communica- 


LECT.     XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  63 

tions  on  the  ground  of  external  testimony,  wc  receive  the 
doctrines  as  converts  and  disciples,  and  accept  the  Reve- 
lation itself  as  an  authority  for  what  it  contains.* 

Having  done  this,  we  are  in  a  condition  to  trace  out  vari- 
ous indications  of  glory  and  excellency  in  the  doctrines 
thus  admitted,  or  rather  in  certain  parts  of  them;  and  these 
indications  furnish  a  source  of  important  subsidiary  evidence. 

Let  us,  then,  first  enumerate,  in  this  view,  the  chief  doc- 
trines OF  the  christian  religion;  and,  secondly,  point 
out  the  particulars  in  vvhich  something  of  their  divine 
excellency  may  be  perceived. 

In  doing  this,  it  will  be  impossible  not  to  touch  on  some 
of  the  points  noticed  under  the  adaptation  of  Christianity, 
in  its  most  general  sense,  to  the  wants  of  man;  for  the  doc- 
trines are  only  the  details  of  that  subject.  At  the  same 
time,  a  wide  distinction  in  the  conduct  and  results  of  the 
argument  will  appear.^ 

I.  I  propose  to  review  the  chief  doctrines  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion. 

1.    The   first   relates   to   the   being,    perfections,    and 

PROVIDENCE    of    THE    ONE    LIVING    AND    TRUE    GoD. 

The  Bible  begins  here.  It  teaches  us  that  there  is  one 
eternal,  self-existing,  and  all-glorious  Being,  who  created 
the  world  out  of  nothing,  and  who  is  the  sovereign,  the  pro- 
prietor, the  preserver,  and  the  Lord  of  all  things. 

The  UNITY  of  this  ever-blessed  God,  in  opposition  to  the 
idols  of  the  heathen  worship;  and  his  glorious  perfections, 
BOTH  ESSENTIAL  AND  MORAL,  in  oppositioH  to  thc  viccs,  and 
passions,  and  prejudices,  by  which  the  pagan  deities  were 
described  as  actuated,  are  the  first  elements  of  revealed 
truth. 

(a)  Davison. 

(b)  A  more  serious  difficulty  arises  from  the  necessity  of  employing  terms  and 
referring  to  doctrines  which  suppose  a  knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  some 
general  acquaintance  with  Christianity  in  its  chief  details.  This  difficulty  attends 
every  branch  of  the  internal  evidences,  but  peculiarly  the  consideration  of  thc  doc- 
trines of  Revelation.  It  will  be  lessened  as  the  student  advances  in  his  inquiry — 
and  with  regard  to  the  great  body  of  young  people,  whom  I  have  especially  in  view, 
and  who  have  been  instructed  from  infancy  in  the  Christian  religion,  it  scarcely  exists. 


54  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.     XV, 

The  glory  of  our  God  is  his  holiness — that  combination 
of  all  his  moral  attributes,  of  justice,  truth,  faithfulness, 
purity,  love,  wisdom,  which  constitutes  the  perfection  of 
his  character;  and  to  which  the  essential  attributes  of 
omniscience,  omnipresence,  omnipotence,  are  subservient. 

With  this  is  connected  the  exercise  of  his  absolute 
SOVEREIGNTY,  his  dominiou  over  all,  his  doing  according  tor 
his  will,  as  the  prophet  speaks,  in  the  army  of  heaven,  and 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth;  '^  his  working  all  things,  as 
the  apostle  terms  it,  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  loilL'^ 

The  I'RoviDENCE  OF  God  is  that  constant  operation  of 
his  power  by  which  he  accomplishes  his  designs.  To  this 
never-failing  care  nothing  is  great,  nothing  little.  It  more 
particularly  concerns  itself  with  the  affairs  of  men,  and  or- 
ders with  a  paternal  regard  the  minutest  concerns  of  the 
church  and  the  world. 

The  HOLY,  JUST,  AND  GOOD  LAW  OF  GoD,  by  wliich  his 
reasonable  creatures  are  ruled,  follows, — that  law  which  is 
the  transcript  of  the  divine  perfection  as  to  its  purity  and 
goodness;  and  which  is  as  equitable  as  it  is  holy;  demanding 
nothing  but  what  man,  created  in  his  Maker's  image,  was 
adequate  to  perform,  and  which  he  would  have  found  the 
purest  happiness  in  accomplishing. 

Such  is  the  scriptural  character  of  God,  not  one  trait  of 
which  was  completely  known  to  the  Heathen  nations. 
Their  deities  were  worse  than  ordinary  wicked  men — full 
of  ambition,  malice,  cruelty,  lust,  deceit.  One  was  the  God 
of  thieves,  another  of  war,  a  third  of  wine.  Their  histories 
are  histories  of  crime  and  chicane,  of  pride  and  contention. 
Their  supreme  Jupiter  is  never  introduced,  but  in  the  form 
of  human  folly,  with  human  vices,  and  engaged  in  criminal 
human  pursuits. 

The  Bible  is  the  only  book  which  lays  the  foundation  of 
religion  in  the  unity,  perfections,  and  sovereignty  of  the  self- 
existing  Jehovah.  The  Bible  is  the  only  book  that  intro- 
duces the  great  God  speaking  in  a  manner  worthy  of  him- 
self, with  dignity,  authority,  sovereign  majesty;  whilst  his 

(c)  Dan.  iv.  33.  (d)  Eph.  i.  11. 


LECT.    XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  55 

condescension  in  using  a  language  adapted  to  our  compre- 
hensions, and  borrowed  from  our  manner  of  perceiving 
things,  only  deepens  the  impression  of  wisdom  and  grace 
which  is  left  upon  the  mind. 

2.  From  the  unity  and  holiness  of  God  flows  the  next 
important  doctrine  of  Revelation,  the  guilt  and  con- 
demnation   OF    MAN    as    a   transgressor   AGAINST    HIM. 

The  Bible  teaches  the  extent  of  human  apostacy,  by 
teaching  the  character  of  the  God  whom  he  has  oft'ended 
and  of  the  law  which  he  has  broken.  Heathenism  had  only 
some  faint  and  partial  views  of  man's  sinfulness;  it  had  lost 
the  very  notion  of  sin  as  committed  against  the  majesty  of 
God.  The  Christian  Revelation  opens  the  whole  doctrine, 
as  dependent  on  the  two  facts  of  the  original  innocency 
and  of  the  fall  of  man,  which  we  noticed  in  the  last  lec- 
ture— it  states,  that  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  loorld,  and 
death  by  sin^—ii  declares  that  men  are  corrupt  and  depraved, 
guilty  and  helpless — it  details  man's  weakness  and  apathy 
as  to  spiritual  things,  the  blindness  of  his  understanding, 
the  pervcrseness  and  rebellion  of  his  will,  the  alienation 
of  his  heart  from  God  and  goodness. 

It  treats  him  as  a  sinner,  accountable  indeed,  and  with 
some  fragments  and  traces  of  a  moral  nature,  and  capable 
of  restoration  by  the  grace  of  God  in  redemption;  but  in 
himself  impotent — unable  to  offer  any  atonement  for  his 
past  offences — unable,  because  unwilling,  to  return  to  his 
duty  to  God — without  knowledge  of  divine  truth,  without 
strength,  without  a  right  determination  of  the  will — without 
any  means  of  devising  or  entering  upon  a  way  of  deliver- 
ance. 

This  description  of  the  guilt  and  folly  of  man  is  widely 
different  from  that  given  in  any  other  book,  and  yet  it  is 
the  only  account  verified  by  experience  and  the  evidence 
of  facts.  Every  other  statement  is  contradicted  by  the  his- 
tory of  all  nations,  contradicted  by  the  precautions  in  every 
political  enactment,  contradicted  by  the    daily  judgment 

(c)  Rom.  V.  f2. 


5d  LF.CTURE3    ON    THE  [lECT.    XV. 

which  each  man  is  compelled  to  form  of  others.  And  the 
more  any  one  will  watch  his  own  motives,  intentions,  imag- 
inations, and  desires,  the  more  clearly  will  it  appear  to  him 
that  the  Scripture  gives  a  far  more  just  account  of  himself, 
than  he  himself  could  have  done. 

It  is  here  important  to  remark,  that  Revelation  did  not 
create  this  state  of  misery  and  guilt;  it  merely  describes 
it  according  to  the  truth  of  the  case,  and  in  order  to  an 
efllectual  cure.  The  state  of  things  is  the  same,  whether 
Christianity  be  true  or  not.  The  facts  remain  the  same. 
Deism  and  the  natural  government  of  God  are  as  much 
open  to  objectionsjon  this  ground  as  Revelation^ — but  Reve- 
lation, finding  man  in  this  fallen  condition,  makes  known 
the  cause,  declares  the  extent  and  consequences  of  human 
guilt,  and  then  presents  a  remedy.  And  the  conscience  of 
every  individual,  when  duly  informed  of  the  decisions  of 
Revelation,  responds  to  the  charge,  and  discerns  in  its  own 
case  the  truth  therein  communicated.  This  doctrine  of 
man's  guilt,  and  of  the  consequent  penalty  of  God's  violated 
law,  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  Bible.  Upon  this  all 
its  addresses  proceed — this  is  the  state  which  is  taken  for 
granted,  as  sufficiently  proved  by  the  voice  of  conscience 
in  the  culprit,  and  the  relation  in  which  he  confessedly 
stands  to  an  almighty  and  infinitely  holy  Creator  and  Judge. 

3.  And  thus  the  way  is  prepared  for  the  stupendous  dis- 
covery of  BEDEMPTION  IN  THE  INCARNATION  AND  SACRI- 
FICE   OF    THE    ONLT    BEGOTTEN    SoN    OF     GoD.S 

The  grand  and  all-important  doctrine  of  tlie  Christian 
religion  is  this,  that  God  so  loved  the  world,  sunk  in  the  guilt 
and  ruin  of  sin,  that  he  gave,  as  the  free  act  of  his  infinite 
benevolence,  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  ivhosoever  bcUcvcth  in 
him,  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  Ufe.^  A  discovery 
this  so  astonishing  in  all   its  parts,  as  to  absorb  and  over- 

(f)  Sec   Lcct.  xxi. 

(g)  For  Revelation  makes  known  n  plurality  of  persons  in  the  Godhead,  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  (he  Holy  Ghost — of  whose  mode  of  subsistence  indeed  it  gives  no  in- 
formation, l)Ul  whose  offices  in  the  economy  of  Redemption  it  considers  essential  to 
every  part  of  that  dispensation;  wlylst  the  doctrine  is  so  stated  as  to  be  in  no  respect 
inconsistent  with  the  unity  of  the  divine  essence. 

(b)  John  iii.  16. 


LECT.  XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  57 

whelm  every  other,  and  to  form  the  grand  centre  around 
which  the  system  of  Christian  truth  revolves. 

The  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin  Mary — the  state  of 
humiliation  upon  which  he  thus  entered — his  life  of  sorrow, 
reproach,  ignominy — his  bitter  and  unutterable  sufferings 
in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane,  before  the  bar  of  Pontius 
Pilate,  and  on  the  cross — his  death  by  the  most  cruel,  lin- 
gering and  servile  punishment  of  crucifixion,  constitute 
that  meritorious  obedience  and  all-perfect  sacrifice,  by 
which  sin  is  expiated,  God  reconciled  to  his  rebellious  crea- 
tures, and  the  Holy  Ghost  vouchsafed  for  the  renovation  of 
the  human  heart. 

The  proper  vicarious  nature  of  these  sufferings,  in  the 
place  and  stead  of  the  transgressor — the  substitution  of  the 
divine  surety  and  Redeemer,  in  the  room  of  the  guilty  cul- 
prit— the  atonement  thus  made  to  the  moral  righteousness 
of  the  great  Governor  of  all — the  display  of  that  righteous- 
ness, so  that  God  may  now  appear  just  and  yet  the  Just ifier  of 
him  that  believeth  in  Jcsus,^ — these  topics  prepare  for  that 

GREAT    DOCTRINE    OF    JUSTIFICATION      BY    FAITH    ONLY,     which 

is  the  leading  truth  of  the  whole  gospel,  as  the  incarnation 
of  Christ  is  the  commanding  discovery,  and  his  meritorious 
death  the  great  vindication  of  the  divine  holiness.  This 
justification  includes  the  remission  of  sins,  and  the  being 
accounted  and  treated  as  righteous  before  God;  and  is  fol- 
lowed by  acceptance,  adoption  into  his  family,  and  the  hope 
of  everlasting  life. 

The  exaltation  of  the  Son  of  God  to  a  state  of  glory  and 
dominion,  as  mediator,  at  the  rigiit  hand  of  the  Father — 
where  in  our  nature  he  sits,  angrJs  and  principalities  and 
powers  being  made  subject  to  hi/n,^  till  he  shall  come  the  sec- 
ond time  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead — concludes  and 
shuts  up  the  doctrine  of  redemption;  a  doctrine  this,  which 
is  peculiar  to  Revelation  in  a  sense  more  strict  than  any  of 
the  preceding.  For  the  unity  and  perfections  of  God 
might  be  faintly  understood  by  the  things  that  are  made '' — and 

(i)  Rom.  iii.  26.  (j)  1.  Pet.  iii.  22.  (k)  Rom.  i.  20. 


58  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XV. 

the  guilt  and  ruin  of  man  have  been  in  some  measure  felt 
and  acknowledged  in  all  ages — but  the  doctrine  of  redemp- 
tion is  a  discovery  as  new  as  it  is  momentous — the  great 
end,  as  it  is  the  brightest  glory,  of  the  Christian  religion. 

4.  The  doctrine  of  the  personality  and  operations 
OF  THE  Holy  Spirit,  follows  upon  the  preceding;  and 
is  a  part,  or  rather  a  consequence,  of  the  redemption  of 
Christ.  For  the  Bible  reveals  a  comforter  and  sanctificr, 
as  well  as  a  redeemer  and  saviour.  The  Holy  Ghost,  the 
third  person  in  the  Godhead,  (for  the  tri-unity  of  the  ever- 
blessed  God  seems  only  revealed  so  far  as  man's  salvation  is 
concerned,)  is  the  divine  agent  in  the  sanctification  of  man. 
He  makes  effectual  to  its  true  ends  the  love  of  God  our 
heavenly  Father,  and  the  grace  and  sacrifice  of  Christ  our 
great  Redeemer.  He  abides  with  the  church  forever,  as  its 
advocate,  comforter,  teacher,  guide,  sanctifier.  It  is  by  him 
the  Holy  Scriptures  were  indited,  as  wc  showed  in  the  Lec- 
tures on  the  inspiration;'  and  it  is  by  him  the  understand- 
ing of  man  is  illuminated  rightly  to  receive  those  records. 
His  operations,  secret  to  us,  accompany  the  ministry  of  the 
word  of  Jesus  Christ.  These  influences  are  not  generally 
distinguishable,  except  in  their  effects,  from  the  acts  of  our 
own  mind.  They  stimulate  the  decisions  of  conscience, 
they  assist  and  strengthen  and  inform  the  judgment;  they 
gently  and  gradually  sway  the  determinations  of  the  will; 
they  thus  cure  the  distempers  of  the  soul,  and  enable  man 
to  receive  and  use  aright  the  records  of  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures. 

The  renovation  and  new  creation  of  man  after  God's 
image;  his  regeneration;  his  being  restored  in  some  meas- 
ure to  his  original  uprightness;  his  being  recast,  as  it  \\ere, 
and  made  over  again  by  a  heavenly  birth;  his  transition 
from  spiritual  death  to  spiritual  life  and  activity — or,  what 
is  the  same  thing  in  other  terms,  his  being  formed  to  a  love 
and  pursuit  of  holiness,  to  a  choice  of  spiritual  things,  to  a 
hatred  of  sin  as  sin,  to  supreme  love  to  God  and  Jesus 
Christ  his  Saviour,  to  resignation  and  acquiescence  in  God's 

(I)  LpcI.   xii.  and  xiii. 


LECT.  XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  59 

holy  will  and  sovereignty  in  providence  and  grace — in  a 
word,  his  being  trained  to  that  peculiar  kind  of  life  which 
springs  from  gratitude  and  love,  and  produces  the  fruits  of 
all  good  works — this  mighty  change,  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  is  the  grand  operation  attributed  to  that  divine 
person  in  the  Christian  system. 

5.   The   doctrines   of  the  sacraments  and  the  other 
MEANS  OF  GRACE  AND  INSTRUCTION  may,  pcrhaps,  not  appear, 
at  first,  of  sufficient  importance  to  accompany  the  prodig- 
ious discoveries  of  the  preceding  topics;  and  yet,  so  far  as 
man  is  concerned,  they  are  so  essential  to  a  riglit  recep- 
tion of  the  peculiar  truths  of  Revelation,  as  to  demand  a 
brief  notice.     For  the  immense  blessings  of  redemption  are 
not  merely  revealed,  but  a  subordinate   system  of  means  is 
connected  with  them.     Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  are 
appointed  visibly  to  represent  and  seal;  and  convey,  in  some 
measure,  to   those   who   receive  them   rightly,  the  grace   of 
God  and   his   consolations   of  pardon   and    peace    of  con- 
science; as  well   as  to   be   a  bond  of  union  and   a  badge  of 
mutual  faith  amongst  Christians.     The  spiritual  repose  of 
the  sabbath;  the  ordinances  of  public  prayer  and  preaching; 
the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures;  the  labors  of  an  order 
of  men  appointed  for  the  religious  instruction  of  mankind, 
are  all  means  of  grace — the  use  of  which  means,  connected 
with   exertion   on   our   part    in   every   branch    of   practical 
Christianity,  with  watchfulness,  resistance  against  tempta- 
tion,  and  continual    private   prayer   and    self-examination, 
brings  down   Christianity  to  the   immediate  conscience  and 
duty  of  man,  whose  reasonable  and  accountable  nature  is 
thus  consulted,  in   the  midst  of  the  glories  of  the  redcm[)- 
tion  which  would  seem  to  overwhelm  it. 

6.  The  resurrection  of  the  dkad  and  the  last  sol- 
emn juD(iMENT,  with  a  consequent  state  of  endless  happi- 
ness or  misery,  close  the  summary — truths  these,  familiar 
to  us  from  our  infancy,  and  often  admitted  by  the  Deist, 
and  even  claimed  by  him  as  the  dictate  of  natural  religion; 
and  yet  which  reason  never  could  discover  of  herself — never 
clear  from  distracting   doubt — never   establish    upon  just 


60  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XV. 

principles — never  prevent  from  being  lost  in  vague  and 
superstitious  fables.  Revelation  alone  settles  the  question 
— asserts  the  resurrection  of  the  body — makes  known  the 
final  judgment — declares  the  person  of  the  Judge — pre- 
scribes the  rules  on  which  his  decision  will  proceed — gives 
a  specimen  of  the  conduct  of  that  last  assize — and  pronoun- 
ces the  endless  punishment  of  the  ungodly,  and  the  ever- 
lasting felicity  of  the  righteous. 

What  discoveries  these! — that  this  world  is  only  the  pre- 
paration for  another — that  man's  life  here  is  only  the  first 
stage  of  his  long  and  immeasurable  journey — that  all  our 
actions  have  consequences  unutterably  momentous — that  a 
final  judgment  will  arrange  all  the  inequalities  of  the  pres- 
ent initiatory  state — that  all  the  parts  of  the  divine  proceed- 
ings, now  incompletely  revealed,  will  be  harmoniously  dis- 
played before  all  the  assembled  intelligences  of  the  universe 
— that  fallen  angels  and  men  will  be  judged  in  righteous- 
ness, (conscience  being  the  chief  witness,)  and  be  alloted  to 
the  several  slates  of  happiness  or  misery  for  which  they  are 
severally  fitted,  as  well  as  judicially  and  most  justly  assigned 
by  the  voice  of  the  omnipotent  Judge — What  a  scene! 
What  consequences! 

When  our  Lord  uttered  that  one  sentence.  The  hour  is 
coming,  in  the  which  all  that  arc  in  the  graves  shall  hear  his 
voice,  and  shall  come  forth;  they  that  have  done  good,  unto  the 
resurrection  of  life,  and,  they  that  have  done  evil,  unto  the  resur- 
rection of  damnation, ^''^ — he  pronounced  a  doctrine,  which  for 
clearness,  for  importance,  for  new  and  decisive  authority, 
for  influence  upon  the  conduct  of  man,  is  unparalleled  by 
all  that  philosophy  or  natural  reason  ever  taught. 

Such  is  Christianity  in  her  main  doctrines.  Let  us  then 
proceed  to  point  out, 

IL    The    particulars    in    which    their    divine  glory  and 

EXCELLENCY      MAY,     IN      CERTAIN     RESPECTS,     BE      PERCEIVED. 

We  observe,  then,  that, 

1.  These  doctrines  all  emanate  from  the  character 
OF  god  as    drawn  in  the  holy    scriptures.     They    flow 

(in)  John  V.  28,29. 


LECT.    XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF     CHRISTIANITY.  01 

from  that  assemblage  of  glorious  attributes — from  that  infi- 
nite holiness  and  goodness  which  the  Revelation  ascribes  to 
the  one  living  and  true  God.  All  the  heathen  deities  are 
corrupt,  and  the  corrupters  of  their  followers.  The  charac- 
ter of  their  gods  is  ignoble,  vile,  contemptible;  their  vices 
and  follies  weigh  down  their  religion,  degrade  all  their  cere- 
monies, infect  the  elements  of  their  worship. 

The  heathens  sustained  their  superstitions  as  well  as  they 
could,  notwithstanding  the  character  of  their  deities.  Con- 
science, tradition,  political  ends,  served  to  bear  up  the  mass 
of  superincumbent  absurdity  and  vice.  In  Christianity,  all 
depends  and  rests  with  its  whole  weight,  on  the  infinite 
holiness  and  goodness  of  the  Almighty  Jehovah.  It  is  the 
character  of  our  God  from  which  all  our  doctrines  emanate; 
the  guilt  of  man  is  what  this  ineffable  purity  teaches  as  an 
inevitable  consequence;  the  mighty  work  of  redemption 
agrees  with  the  unspeakable  love  and  benevolence  of  his 
moral  attributes;  the  gift  of  his  own  Son,  and  the  mission 
of  the  Spirit,  when  revealed,  are  seen  exactly  to  become 
the  divine  compassion  and  grace. 

Man  has  ever  been  found  to  bear  a  resemblance  to  the 
object  of  his  worship.  In  Christianity,  the  one  true  God 
surpasses  in  purity  all  his  creatures,  is  the  infinitely  excel- 
lent object  of  love  and  imitation,  and  draws  man  upwards 
to  holiness  and  obedience. 

This  holiness  of  God  penetrates  every  part  of  the  religion, 
sustains  it,  gives  birth  to  its  details,  demands  and  renders 
necessary  its  provisions,  and  constitutes  its  excellency  and 
glory.  It  is  this  which  is  the  spring  of  all  the  virtues  of 
Christian  worshippers.  The  more  the  attributes  and  works 
of  God — his  sovereignty,  his  law,  his  providence,  his  gift  of 
a  Saviour,  his  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  his  declarations 
of  a  future  judgment — are  considered,  the  better  and  holier 
men  become.  The  glory  of  the  Lord  is  the  sum  and  end 
of  every  thing;  the  first  source  and  final  cause  of  all  purity 
and  all  joy. 

2.  There  is,  in  the  next  place,  a  simplicity  in  the  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  which  forms  a  part  of  their  excellence. 


02  LECTURES    0\    THE  [lECT.  XV. 

They  may  bo  summed  up  in  three  plain  and  obvious  points: 
the  corruption  of  man;  the  reconciliation  of  man  to  God; 
and  the  restoration  of  man  to  his  original  purity  and  dig- 
nity;— points  so  simple,  that  human  nature,  in  all  ages, 
acknowledged  them  in  her  feeble  manner,  or  rather  guessed 
at  and  desired  them.  The  fall  she  could  not  but  perceive  and 
feel  at  all  times;  a  way  of  atonement  by  sacrifice  she  ever 
wished  for,  but  wished  for  in  vain;  a  source  of  strength  and 
consolation  she  breathed  after,  but  knew  not  whence  it  must 
flow.  Revelation  comes  in.  Its  doctrines  are  found  to  em- 
brace the  very  points  after  which  nature  fruitlessly  panted. 
Thus  simple  is  her  system — the  fall  and  the  recovery  of 
man  embrace  every  thing. 

And  not  only  so;  these  doctrines  rest  on  a  very  few  promi- 
nent facts,  which  are  first  established,  and  then  employed 
for  the  purpose  of  instructing  us  in  the  doctrines.  The 
corruption  and  guilt  of  man  is  a  doctrine  resting  on  the 
fact  of  the  transgression  of  our  first  parents.  The  incarna- 
tion, from  which  the  doctrines  of  justification  and  sanctifi- 
cation  are  consequences  or  uses,  is  a  fact.  The  existence 
and  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  facts  of  practical  and 
universal  application  in  every  age. 

This  simplicity  of  the  Christian  system  is  in  remarkable 
contrast  with  the  confusion  and  complication  of  the  theo- 
ries of  men,  which,  resting  on  no  positive  facts,  are  vague 
and  unsubstantial.  Like  the  works  of  creation,  Christian- 
ity exhibits  an  artless  simplicity  in  the  few  and  prominent 
facts  on  which  it  is  built;  so  totally  difterent  from  the  clumsy 
and  artificial  productions  of  man. 

3.  But  there  is  at  the  same  time  a  surpassing  grandeur 
AND  suuLJMurY  in  these  doctrines,  which  that  very  simplic- 
ity the  more  illustrates.  It  is  simple,  indeed,  as  referring 
to  a  few  points,  and  resting  on  certain  facts;  but  these 
points  are  so  infinitely  important  to  man,  and  these  facts 
are  so  grand  and  stupendous,  that  it  is  impossible  for  the 
human  mind  fully  to  grasp  them,  even  when  revealed.  All 
is  stupendous  in  redemption;  the  divine  persons  engaged  in 
contriving  and  executing  it;  the  length  of  time  during  which 


LECT.  XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  G3 

it  was  preparing;  the  gradual  announcement  of  it  for  four 
thousand  years:  the  glory  and  difficulty  of  the  Saviour's 
enterprize  in  accomplishing  it;  the  mysterious  union  of 
Deity  and  humanity  in  his  person;  the  force  and  number  o. 
the  enemies  overcome,  especially  his  conquest  over  the 
malice  and  power  of  the  great  spiritual  adversary;"  the 
blessings  which  his  redemption  procured;  the  eternal  con- 
sequences dependent  on  its  acceptance  or  rejection;  the 
holy  angels,  the  messengers  and  ministers  of  it  and  the 
eager  inquirers  into  its  manifold  wisdom — all  give  it  a 
greatness  and  excellency  becoming  the  infinite  majesty  of 
the  divine  Author  of  our  religion.  Every  thing  is  little, 
mean,  limited,  uninteresting,  worthless,  compared  with  the 

EXCELLENCY     OF     THE     KNOWLEDGE      OF     ChRIST     JeSUS     OUR 

Lord."  The  value  of  the  soul  of  man,  and  the  depth  of  its 
fall,  are  best  known  from  the  astonishing  method  of  recov- 
ery here  revealed.  A  God  incarnate,  a  God  humbling  him- 
self, a  God  interposing,  bleeding,  agonizing,  for  man  his 
creature,  is  a  fact  of  such  grandeur  and  majesty  as  to  be 
quite  beyond  the  command  and  faculty  of  the  human  mind. 

As  the  vastness  of  the  universe,  the  more  it  is  discovered 
and  traced  out,  heightens  our  conception  of  the  glory  and 
power  of  God — worlds  upon  worlds — systems  upon  systems 
— the  starry  heavens,  an  assemblage  of  suns,  each  sur- 
rounded with  its  planetary  attendants — till  the  mind  is  lost 
in  the  contemplation.  So  the  "magnitude  of  redemption 
overwhelms  the  mind;  the  greatness  of  one  part  pressing 
upon  another;  calculation  defeated,  an  imagination  exhaust- 
ed in  pursuing  consequence  after  consequence,  till  faith 
iteelf  toils  in  vain  to  follow  out  the  Revelation  whicii  it  can 
never  fully  comprehend. 

4.  But  the  HAiiMONY  of  all  its  parts,  and  the  manner  in 
which  it  is  represented,  stamps  a  divine  authority  upon  the 
Christian  doctrine. 

Like  the  stones  of  a  well-constructed  arch,  every  part  of 
the  doctrine  of  Revelation  is  not  only  essential  to  the  rest, 

(n)  The  Revelation  makes  known  the  existence  autl  agency  of  angels;  both  of 
iliosc  who  fell,  and  of  those  who  kept  their  first  innoccnry. 
(o)  I'hil.  iii.  8. 


G4  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XV. 

but  occupies  the  exact  place  which  gives  union  and  stability 
to  the  whole.  Tlie  dilTerent  doctrines  cohere.  They  all 
unite  in  the  guilt  and  corruption  of  man,  and  in  the  incarna- 
tion and  sacrifice  of  Christ.  If  f.ny  one  part  be  taken  away, 
the  remainder  becomes  disjointed  and  useless.  For  what  is 
the  doctrijic  of  redemption,  without  that  of  the  fall?  or  that 
of  the  fall,  without  the  doctrine  of  redemption?  And  what 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  unless  sustained  by  both 
the  preceding?  And  what  is  the  infinitely  holy  character 
of  God,  if  separated  from  the  other  doctrines,  of  which  it  is 
the  key-stone — the  essential,  primary  part,  which  knits  the 
whole  arch  together? 

Redemption  displays,  also,  in  combination  and  harmony, 
all  the  divine  perfections  in  undiminished,  yea  augmented 
glory.  To  exercise  mercy  and  grace  in  accordance  with 
all  the  ends  of  justice;  to  pardon,  and  yet  to  express  the  ut- 
most abhorrence  of  sin;  to  unite  truth  in  the  same  act  with 
compassion;  to  display  a  manifold  wisdom  in  the  way  of  re- 
conciling the  ends  of  a  holy  legislation  with  the  salvation 
of  the  sinner;  to  exhibit  all  the  divine  perfections  in  one 
scheme  which  shall  obscure  none,  and  yet  give  to  mercy  the 
occasion  of  rejoicing  against  j'n(lgment,P — all  this  is  the  evi- 
dence of  a  harmony  truly  divine. 

Nor  do  the  representations  of  this  scheme  fail  to  give  the 
just  impression  of  this  beautiful  accordance.  All  the  sacred 
writers  unite  in  the  great  outline.  It  runs  through  the  Bi- 
ble. The  same  view  of  man,  and  his  sin  and  guilt;  the  same 
view  of  God,  and  his  glorious  sovereignty  and  perfections; 
the  same  view  of  Christ,  and  his  person  and  sacrifice;  the 
same  view  of  justification  and  acceptance  before  God;  the 
same  view  of  the  sanctifying  influences  of  the  Spirit,  of  the 
means  of  grace,  and  the  hopes  of  glory — pervade  every  part 
of  the  Scriptures.  The  degrees  of  light  cast  on  the  details 
of  the  scheme  differ,  but  the  main  principles  are  the  same. 
Isaiah  develops  and  confirms  the  writings  of  Moses;  ^  Paul 
attaches  his  doctrine  of  justification  to  that  of  Abraham."^ 
Abel's  offering  is  celebrated  in  one  of  the  last  of  the  apos- 

(p)  James  ii,  13.  (q)  Isaiah  li.  1,2.  (r)  Rom.  iv. 


LECT      XV.]  EVIDENCES    OK    CHRISTIANITY.  65 

tolical  epistles.'  Every  thing  is  accordant  and  consistent, 
as  becomes  a  divine  Revelation. 

Contrast  with  this  harmony  the  contradictions  of  Infidelity 
and  Paganism.  "In  the  mythology  of  Egypt,  Greece,  and 
Rome,  and  in  the  fantastical  legends  of  India,  China,  or 
Japan,  we  find  many  fragments  of  Scripture  history  blended 
with  fictions  of  the  most  extravagant  kind;  but  nothing  solid, 
coherent;  nothing  which  indicates  one  superintending  and 
controlling  mind  pervading  the  whole.'"  In  Mahometan- 
ism  I  need  not  say  there  is  no  connexion  or  consistency  in 
the  system  itself  The  Bible  alone  contains  a  clear,  uniform, 
harmonious  representation  of  religious  doctrine,  of  man's  fall 
and  recovery,  of  this  world  and  the  next,  of  time  and  eter- 
nity. 

And  this  argument  is  stronger,  if  we  recollect  the  diflfer- 
ent  ages  when  the  sacred  penmen  lived,  and  their  number 
and  diversity  of  talents  and  character.  Nothing  is  more 
rare  than  a  consistent  statement  of  a  few  facts  of  contem- 
porary history.  Constant  experience  teaches  us,  that  in  the 
representation  of  religious  doctrines,  discrepancies  contin- 
ually occur.  If  only  three  or  four  writers  compose  a  ^g\v 
different  works  on  any  given  subject,  the  disagreements  will 
be  endless.  But  here,  in  the  Bible,  we  have  more  than 
thirty  various  authors,  composing  between  sixty  and  seventy 
different  works,  living,  some  fifteen  hundred  years  before 
the  Christian  a3ra,  and  some  a  hundred  years  after:  of  all 
the  various  classes  of  society — kings,  legislators,  prophets, 
magistrates,  captains  of  armies,  fishermen,  tent-makers  — 
some  of  whom  compose  history,  some  poetry,  others  devo- 
tional exercises;  some  biography,  others  hortatory  epistles, 
whilst  a  large  number  deliver  prophecies,  uniting  exhorta- 
tion and  warning  with  jircdictions  of  future  events; — and 
yet  they  all  agree;  a  harmony  runs  through  all  their  produc- 
tions on  all  the  great  subjects  of  revealed  truth.  And  this 
in  a  continued  series  of  writings  for  sixteen  hundred  years, 
in  a  country  which  has  scarcely  before  or  since  produced  a 
single  author  of  eminence,  but  which  began  and  finished  its 

(s)  Heb.  XI.  4-.  (i)  Bishop  Van  Mildcrt. 

9 


GO  LECTURES    ON    THK  [lECT.    XV, 

literary  course  with  this  wonderful  succession  of  harmonious 
and  accordant  books.  Such  a  proof  of  divine  contrivance 
speaks  for  itself,  and  is  irresistible. 

"I  can  no  more  believe,"  says  Bishop  Gastrel,  "the  whole 
Christian  scheme  an  imposture  of  mere  human  contrivance, 
than  I  can  believe  that  all  the  materials  which  composed 
the  city  of  Rome  met  together  and  put  themselves  into 
form.  For  as  I  cannot  sec  what  should  give  these  materials 
a  determinate  motion  towards  the  building  of  that  city;  no 
more  can  I  comprehend  what  should  influence  or  determine 
a  man  to  frame  and  contrive  such  a  history  and  religion  as 
the  Christian.  And  as  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that,  if  all 
the  materials  necessary  for  tiie  building  of  Rome  had  by 
some  extraordinary  motion  been  carried  to  that  place,  they 
would  have  fashioned  themselves  and  fell  into  that  exact 
form  we  find  that  city  built  in;  so,  likewise,  is  it  equally  im- 
possible to  conceive  that,  if  there  was  an  end  or  motive  in 
nature  sufhcient  to  determine  a  man  to  invent  such  a  relig- 
ion as  the  Christian,  he  should  have  made  and  contrived  it, 
in  all  its  parts  and  circumstances,  just  such  as  it  is  delivered 
to  us  in  the  Scriptures." 

5.  But  the  divine  excellency  of  the  Scripture  doctrines 
appears    in    their   meeting  all  the    necessities    of   man, 

AND  YET  PROMOTING  THE  ENDS  OV     God's  MORAL  GOVERN- 
MENT. 

The  manner  in  which  the  Christian  Revelation  meets  the 
exigencies  of  man,  we  noticed  somewhat  particularly  in  our 
preceding  lecture,'  and  we  have  alluded  to  it  in  our  present. 
What  further,  then,  can  be  necessary  to  be  said  on  the  details? 
Wliat  more  need  be  stated  on  the  doctrines  of  the  incarna- 
tion and  sacrifice  of  Clnist,  and  of  the  operations  of  the 
Holy  Sj)irit,  as  meeting  the  wants  of  man — his  want  of  merit, 
his  want  of  strength — his  want  of  knowledge,  his  want  of 
happiness.^  It  is  the  peculiarity  of  Revelation  that  it  pro- 
vides a  remedy  for  all  our  misery;  and  it  is  the  peculiarity 
of  that  remedy,  to  be  applicable  to  the  precise  bearings  of 
our  case.     Nor  are  the  other  doctrines  of  tlie  being,  and 

(u)  Bisliop  Gaslrul,  in  Hp.  V;iii  Mililcrl"s  Lectures.  (v)  Led.  xiv. 


LECT.    XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITV.  G7 

perfections,  and  law  of  Almighty  God,  and  of  the  guilt  of  sin, 
and  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  eternal  judgment, 
less  adapted  for  the  exigencies  which  man's  ignorance  of 
God,  of  himself,  of  a  future  state,  and  of  tiie  grounds  of  the 
final  sentence,  present. 

This  is  the  obvious  excellency  of  the  Scripture  doctrines, 
that  they  altogether  provide  a  complete  and  most  surprising 
recovery  for  man  from  the  ruins  of  the  fall;  restoring  him  to 
the  favor  of  God  by  the  immense  blessing  of  forgiveness, 
and  to  the  moral  image  of  God  by  the  purifying  influences 
of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

But  how,  it  may  be  asked,  can  the  same  acts  promote  the 
special  ends  of  God's  moral  government,  to  which  they  seem 
rather  to  be  hindrances,  or  at  least  exceptions?  They  do 
so  in  various  ways. 

The  great  propitiation  of  Christ  magnifies  the  law  of  God, 
by  sustaining  the  penalty  of  it;  whilst  his  previous  obedience 
honored  all  its  precepts.  Never  was  the  inseparable  con- 
nexion between  sin  and  misery  so  exhibited  as  in  the  cross 
of  Christ.  Never  was  the  holiness  of  God  and  his  hatred  of 
moral  evil  so  manifested.  Never  was  the  honor  of  the 
divine  government  and  its  inflexible  purity  so  demonstrated. 

Nor  does  the  way  in  which  the  blessing  of  pardon  is  to 
be  received  less  clearly  promote  the  same  ends.  For  what 
attitude  must  man  assume  when  he  applies  for  the  beneflt? 
That  of  a  culprit;  that  of  a  penitent,  vindicating  God  and 
condemning  himself;  that  of  a  rebel,  returning  to  his  allegi- 
ance, and  admitting  the  ecjuity  of  the  law  which  he  has  vio- 
lated. 

And  what  must  follow  on  his  justification?  A  life  of  obe- 
dience, from  gratitude  and  love;  the  necessity  of  which  is  not 
lessened,  though  the  place  it  occupies  is  of  course,  from  the 
whole  scheme  of  salvation,  changed.  And  does  not  this  obe- 
dience from  a  principle  of  love,  vindicate  and  promote  the 
ends  of  God's  holy  government,  when  it  is  produced  by  the 
grace  of  redemption,  in  those  who  were  before  open  trans- 
gressors and  rebels.'' 

Again:  what  is  the  very  faith  which  justifies,  but  a  holy 
principle,  tlie  source  of  all  future  obedience;  though  in  the 


68  LECTURES    ON    THF.  [lECT.    XV. 

act  of  justification  it  is  only  as  the  hand  which  lays  hold  of  the 
Saviour's  merits?  And  what  are  the  grace  and  operations 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  a  spring  of  renewed  love  and  sub- 
jection to  God?  And  what  are  the  manifestations  of  the 
last  judgment,  but  the  proofs  of  moral  and  religious  char- 
acter in  man,  displayed  before  the  assembled  universe? 

Thus  admirably  are  the  necessities  of  man  supplied,  on 
the  one  hand;  and  the  ends  of  moral  government,  in  the 
dispensations  of  the  Almighty,  established  triumphantly,  on 
the  other:  whilst  the  union  of  those  apparently  contradic- 
tory points  illustrates  that  divine  wisdom  which  pervades 
the  whole  doctrine  of  Revelation. 

G.  This  impression  will  be  strengthened  if  we  consider 
that  the  revealed  doctrines  are  at  once  deeply  HUiMiLi.vTiNG 

AND    IN    THE    HIGHEST    DEGUEE    CONSOLATOKY.       The   pCCuHar 

truths  of  the  Bible  are,  indeed,  most  humiliating; — they  lay 
man  low;  they  strip  him  of  his  fancied  righteousness  and 
imagined  power;  they  empty  iiim  of  the  conceit  and  self- 
dependance  with  which  he  swells.  A  salvation  by  grace,  a 
justification  by  faith;  a  sanctification,  the  seeds  of  which 
are  implanted  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  all  the  fruits  of  it 
matured  by  the  same  divine  comforter — all  this  is  most 
humiliating.  Then  the  partial  discoveries  which  the  doc- 
trines of  Revelation  make,  oppose  the  pride  of  man's  under- 
standing: partial,  not  as  to  their  practical  uses,  but  as  to 
the  whole  compass  of  them,  the  various  consequences  which 
flow  from  them,  and  many  circumstances  with  which  they 
are  connected. 

The  mysteries  of  Scripture,  again — which  is  only  another 
word  for  man's  ignorance — humble  man:  mysteries  as  to 
the  purposes  of  the  Almighty;  mysteries  as  to  the  manner 
of  the  divine  subsistences  in  the  holy  Trinity;  mysteries  as 
to  the  entrance  of  moral  evil;  mysteries  as  to  the  union  of 
the  two  natures  in  the  person  of  Christ;  mysteries  as  to  the 
operations  of  grace  in  accordance  with  the  accountableness 
and  efi'orts  of  man — these  and  other  points,  impenetrable  to 
the  human  understanding,  are  no  doubt  most  humiliating. 

And  yet,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  as  con- 
nected with  the   abundant  consolations  which   flow  from 


LECT.  XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  C9 

them,  they  prove  the  excellency  of  the  very  system  which 
they  seem  to  obscure:  for  had  not  this  scheme  been  far 
beyond  human  capacities  and  discoveries,  it  need  not 
have  been  revealed.  And  in  a  communication  from  the 
all-comprehending  mind — the  infinite  and  eternal  God — 
mysteries  are  the  natural  and  necessary  result  of  our  limited 
faculties.  How  can  man  comprehend  the  whole  will,  and 
the  manner  of  subsistence,  and  the  modes  of  operations  of 
the  glorious  Jehovah?  That  a  divine  Revelation  should, 
in  some  respects,  be  clothed  with  incomprehensibility,  is 
one  proof  of  its  divine  origin.  I  say  in  some  respects;  for 
the  doctrines  of  revelation  are  not  mysterious  in  all  their 
parts.  The, statements  and  facts  are  clear  and  intelligible; 
it  is  only  in  modes  and  essences  that  incomprehensibility 
is  involved, — As  in  the  works  of  creation,  though  we  cannot 
penetrate  to  the  hidden  nature  of  things,  and  in  that  view 
all  is  mystery;  yet  we  can  discern  traces  enough  of  a  divine 
hand,  to  adore  the  unsearchable  goodness  and  wisdom  of 
the  great  Architect  and  Author. 

Nay,  the  very  humility  which  these  obscurities  tend  to 
produce,  is  one  mark  of  the  divine  excellency  of  Revela- 
tion; because  the  malady  of  man  was  pride,  which  these  are 
especially  calculated  to  cure. 

And,  then,  what   sources   of  consolation  are  opened 
in  these  mysterious  truths!      Where  is  there  a  spring  of 
comfort  to  man,  which  does  not  rise  from  a  doctrine  sur- 
rounded in  some  view  with  impenetrable  darkness.''  Whence 
any  peace  of  conscience  but  from  the  mysterious  sacrifice 
of  the  cross.^     Whence  the  disposition  and  power  to  repent 
and  seek  God,  but  from  the  mysterious  influences  of  the 
Spirit.^     Whence  the  softest  consolations  of  the  heart  in 
trouble,  but  from  the  mysterious  communion  of  God  with 
the  soul,''     And  what  is  there  so  consolatory  as  that  incar- 
nation of  the  Son  of  God,  which  is  shrouded  with  the  deepest 
darkness,''     It  is  in  this  mystery  that  are  involved  the  con- 
descension and  pity  of  the   Almighty.     It  is  here  that  the 
invisible  God  becomes  tangible,  as  it  were,  and  perceptible 
to  man.     It  is  here,  that  the  distance  and  dread  whicii  sin 
has  interposed,  are  removed. 


70  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XV. 

In  sliort,  tlie  one  stupendous  act  of  the  love  of  God  in 
the  gift  of  his  Son,  which  is  the  distinguishing  truth  of 
Christianity,  is  so  incomparably  consoling,  and  at  the  same 
time  so  humiliating,  as  to  form,  from  this  united  impression, 
the  strongest  evidence  of  its  divine  glory  and  excellency.  It 
is  here  the  restorative  character  of  revealed  trutli  rises  to 
the  highest  point — that  all  is  shown  to  be  summed  up  in  an 
exhibition  of  divine  love — that  every  thing  else  is  seen  to 
be  only  preparatory  to  this,  or  consequent  upon  it.  This 
is  the  epitome  of  the  Christian  doctrines.  Redemption  is 
the  manifestation  of  the  character  of  love  in  the  ever-blessed 
God.  The  incarnation  is,  so  to  speak,  love  itself  made 
man;  whilst  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost  are  a  diffusion 
of  the  same  divine  love. 

How  does  this  consideration  raise  these  internal  eviden- 
ces! how  does  it  invest  them  with  a  matchless  excellency! 
how  does  it  render  the  very  mysteries  which  result  from  the 
infinite  condescension  of  God,  in  taking  our  nature  upon 
him,  a  part  of  the  proof  of  their  divine  origin!  how  do  the 
very  depths  of  darkness,  with  which  we  feel  ourselves  sur- 
rounded in  certain  points  of  view,  enhance  the  consolation 
which  flows  in  a  full  tide  upon  the  soul,  from  the  practical 
effects  and  tendencies  of  the  doctrines  which  arise  from 
them,  and  which  guide  and  illuminate  our  path! 

And  here  we  might  close  the  argument  of  this  Lecture; 
but  there  remains  one  additional  point  of  great  weight,  illus- 
trating the  whole  of  what  we  have  been  observing,  and 
elevating  the  proof  to  a  yet  loftier  height.  For,  besides 
these  separate  marks  of  glory  and  excellency  in  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  we  would  call  your  attention  to  the  magni- 

TUDi:  AM)  SUBLIMITY  OF  THE  GREAT  DESIGN  OF  ALMIGHTY 
GOD,    OF    WHICH    THEY    ARE     THE     RESULT.         A    plan,    fomicd 

before  the  ages,  is  revealed  in  the  Christian  Scriptures. 
Its  greatness  and  sublimity  may  be  judged  of  from  the  com- 
pass it  takes,  the  position  it  occupies,  the  effects  it  has  pro- 
duced. This  stupendous  project  of  redemption  appears 
immediately  after  the  fall,  and  is  pursued  to  the  close  of  the 
divine  canon;  it  involves  in  its  course  all  the  operations  of 
a  wonderful  providence — all  the  miracles  and  prophecies 


LECT.   XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  71 

of  both  Testaments;  it  proceeds  onward  still  to  the  present 
hour;  nor  will  it  cease  its  progress  till  its  grand  consumma- 
tion, in  the  conversion  of  the  world  and  the  glories  of  the 
latter  days,  and  the  giving  up  of  the  mediatorial  kingdom  to 
God,  even  the  Father,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all.'''' 

Tiiis  adds  incomparably  to  the  whole  evidence  of  inward 
excellency  in  the  Christian  scheme.  It  is  not  merely  a 
method  of  redemption  emanating  from  the  divine  character, 
simple,  sublime,  harmonious,  advancing  the  ends  of  moral 
government,  deeply  humiliating  and  consolatory — but  it  is 
a  scheme  forming  part  of  a  plan  devised  before  the  founda- 
tions of  the  world  were  laid,  for  the  redemption  of  man  from 
sin  and  misery  by  the  Son  and  Spirit  of  God — a  plan,  of 
which  the  brief  outline  and  pledge  was  given  in  the  first 
promise  of  ^Ae  seed  of  the  woman^ — a  plan  which  the  institution 
of  sacrifice,  the  separation  of  Seth's  posterity  from  that  of 
Cain,  the  destruction  of  the  old  world,  the  covenant  with 
Noah,  the  dispersion  of  Babel,  and  tiie  calling  of  Abraham 
were  the  first  means  of  promoting— and  which  the  sojourn- 
ing of  the  chosen  family  in  Egypt,  their  deliverance  by  the 
hand  of  Moses,  and  the  dispensation  of  the  law,  with  all  its 
typical  institutions,  still  further  advanced  > — a  plan  which 
is  the  commanding  principle  of  the  whole  Revelation — the 
clue  which  guides  through  all  the  mysterious  dealings  of 
the  Almighty.  The  judges  and  kings,  the  princes  and 
prophets;  the  sacred  books  of  the  difiercnt  a;ras  of  the 
church;  especially  the  divine  prophecies  from  the  first  voice 
of  Isaiah  to  the  last  accents  of  Malachi — all  subserved  this 
vast  project,  which  unlocks,  like  a  master-key,  every  part  of 
Scripture.  This  comprehends  all  the  miracles  and  proph- 
ecies which  we  considered  in  former  Lectures.'-  This  gives 
a  unity  and  grandeur  and  importance  to  the  doctrine  of 
redemption,  which  heighten  inconceivably  its  excellencies, 
and  speak  the  divine  hand  from  wliicli  it  came. 

The  very  conception  of  such  a  plan  for  accomplishing 
such  holy  benevolent  ends,  by  means  so  extraordinary,  and 
running  through  all  the  ages  of  time,  could  never  have  en- 
tered any  finite  mind.     The  declarations  of  its  general  pur- 

(w)  1  Cor.  XV.  28.    {x)  Gen.  iii,  15.     (y)  V.  Milder,     (z)  Lcct.  vii,  viii,  ix. 


72  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XV. 

pose,  given  four  thousand  years  before  the  incarnation, — 
which,  standing  between  the  former  ages  and  the  present, 
is  the  grand  fact  uniting  all  the  dispensations  of  the  Al- 
mighty,— could  never  have  been  made  by  man;  or,  if  made, 
could  never  have  been  accomplished.  Only  an  infinitely 
wise  God  could  have  formed  such  a  project,  stretching  from 
the  creation  to  the  consummation  of  all  things;  and  only  an 
omniscient  and  omnipotent  Being  could  have  promised  and 
effected  the  gradual  accomplishment  of  it. 

Man's  plans  are  earthly,  contiguous,  narrow,  variable, 
incomplete.  Man's  plans  are,  like  himself,  feeble  and  limited 
in  project,  low  and  debased  in  pursuit,  partial  and  unsatis- 
factory in  result.  The  plan  of  redemption  is,  like  its  author, 
spiritual,  exalted,  uniform,  extensive,  successful.  The  plan 
of  redemption  is  the  centre  around  which,  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  w^orld,  all  the  works  of  providence  and  all  the 
dispensations  of  grace  have  been  revolving.  The  parts  of 
the  design  which  we  sec,  are  only  a  small  division  of  the 
whole,  and  may  assume,  in  our  view,  the  appearance  of  dis- 
order; but  all  is  one  glorious  and  consistent  purpose.  Time 
moves  on,  and  fresh  events  develope  something  more  of  the 
roll  of  the  divine  will  relating  to  it.  We  are  yet  in  the 
midst  of  the  unaccomplished  series.  The  facts  of  the  in- 
carnation and  of  the  supernatural  propagation  and  preser- 
vation of  the  gospel  in  the  world,  assure  us  of  the  fulfilment 
oftlie  whole  design;  whilst  the  manifest  state  of  the  world 
and  the  church  seems  anxiously  to  wait  for  the  blessing. 

The  very  grandeur  and  consistency  of  the  accomplished 
parts  of  this  plan  declare  its  author;  and,  when  considered 
in  connexion  with  the  pure  and  benevolent  object  of  it,  the 
infinite  contrivances  apparent  in  its  several  divisions,  and 
the  divine  interferences  manifest  in  its  progress,  would  of 
itself  form  a  decisive,  independent  proof  of  the  Christian 
Revelation.  But  when  this  is  joined  on  upon  the  vast  mass 
of  the  external  evidences,  and  is  viewed  only  as  a  subsidiary 
proof  to  a  mind  already  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  religion 
(which  is  the  exact  position  which  the  internal  evidences  oc- 
cupy,) the  force  which  it  possesses  for  confirming  our  faith 
is  utterly  irresistible.      It  wants  no  learning,  no  criticism. 


LECT.     XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITV.  73 

no  long  study,  to  perceive  the  energy  of  such  an  argument. 
Science  and  learning,  indeed,  are  very  important  when  duly 
employed,  and  on  no  subject  more  than  religion.  But  the 
commanding  truths  of  Christianity  are  open  to  all,  just  as 
its  mysteries  are  incomprehensible  to  all.  The  glorious 
orb  of  day  is  not  a  more  immediate  and  irrefragable 
proof  of  a  beneficent  and  all-wise  Creator,  than  the  sun 
OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS,  as  our  Saviour  is  termed  by  the  holy 
prophet,"  is  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion.  And  as 
the  poorest  and  most  illiterate  peasant  can  feel  the  warmth 
and  light  and  joy  which  its  rays  diffuse,  as  gratefully  as  the 
most  learned  philosopher,  (though  he  cannot  speculate  upon 
the  theory  of  liglit  or  the  laws  of  the  planetary  system;)  so 
can  the  humblest  disciple  as  distinctly  perceive  the  glory 
and  excellency,  the  vital  warmth  and  light  and  joy  of  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness,  as  the  most  profound  Christian 
scholar,  though  he  cannot  detail  the  historical  proof  of  it, 
or  defend  his  religion  by  argument. 

But,  as  in  the  case  of  the  natural  sun,  no  glory  in  the  ob- 
ject can  be  perceived  by  him  who  wants  the  faculty  to  dis- 
cern it;  so  can  no  moral  excellency  in  redemption  be  per- 
ceived by  him  who  has  a  mind  darkened  by  pride  and  prej- 
udice and  habits  of  vice  and  worldlincss.  He  wants  the 
faculty.  He  must  be  directed  to  that  preparatory  work  of 
self-observation,  submission  to  tlie  external  evidences  of 
Christianity,  acceptance  of  all  tlie  contents  of  the  religion 
on  the  autliority  of  the  religion  itself,  study  of  these  con- 
tents on  their  own  principles  and  by  their  proper  light, 
prayer  for  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit — in  order  tliat  his 
mind,  being  purged  and  strengthened,  may  be  able  to  dis- 
cern the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord^ 

Much  of  what  we  have  stated  cannot  but  appear  strange, 
inconsistent,  extravagant  to  the  unpractised  and  uninstruct- 
ed  mind  of  man  in  his  natural  darkness  and  prejudices,  and 
making  only  some  guesses  at  Revelation,  as  a  blind  man 
of  colors.  It  is  enougii  if  we  direct  him  to  those  introduc- 
tory studies  which  shall  lead  him  to  the  full  light  of  truth, 

(a)  Mai.  iv.  2.  (l>)  Phil,  iii,  8. 

.10 


74  LECTURES    OS    THE  [lECT.    XV. 

if  honestly  employed.  The  elements  of  every  science  must 
be  first  learned,  before  its  last  and  noblest  discoveries  can 
be  even  conjectured,  much  less  comprehended  or  judged  of 
aright.  Nor  doth  this  ignorance  at  all  lessen  the  real  glory 
and  excellency  of  these  discoveries,  as  perceived  by  the 
humble  and  experienced  disciple. 

I   appeal   to  every  such  disciple,  whethek  the  inward 

EVIDENCE    OF    CllUIsTlANITV,  FROM    ITS    PECULIAR    DOCTRINES, 

does  not  rise  brighter  and  brighter  upon  his  view,  as  he  can 
enter  into  the  practical  uses  and  bearings  of  them,  and  can 
dismiss  from  his  mind  the  intrusions  of  forbidden  curiosity. 
I  ask  whether  every  year  doth  not  add  something  to  his 
deeply-seated  conviction  of  the  infinite  love  of  God  in  the 
gift  of  a  Saviour  for  the  redemption  of  man?  I  ask  whether 
the  divine  character  from  which  all  the  doctrines  of  Rev- 
elation emanate — the  simplicity  and  yet  grandeur  of  those 
discoveries — their  harmony — their  illustration  of  the  glories 
of  God's  moral  government — their  humiliating  as  well  as 
consolatory  tendency,  do  not  pour  a  flood  of  light  upon  his 
mind;  do  not  fall  in  with  all  his  conceptions  of  congruity 
and  fitness  in  a  divine  proceeding,  and  strengthen  all  the 
results  of  external  evidences?  I  ask  him  whether,  when  he 
can  most  clearly  disembarrass  himself  from  matters  of  spec- 
ulation, and,  relinquishing  a  priori  reasoning,  can  repose 
most  entirely  in  the  practical  uses  of  divine  truth,  he  does 
not  most  forcibly  feel  its  elevating,  sanctifying,  consoling 
e  fleets.' 

Yesj  this  is  the  result  of  the  whole  subject  which  we  have 
been  reviewing, — the  exhibition  of  the  divine  character  of 
love  in  the  gift  of  a  Saviour  invariably  produces  a  corres- 
pondent    LOVE     AND     GRATITUDE    TO     GoD    ON    THE    PART    OF 

THE  TRUE  Christian — the  love  of  God  to  man  is  calculated, 
is  desiorncd  to  call  forth  man's  love  to  God  in  return.  Love 
to  God  is  the  natural  consequence  of  such  a  display.  Just 
as  danger  is  calculated  to  excite  fear;  and  proposed  good, 
hope;  and  unexpected  deliverance,  joy;  so  such  love,  on  the 
part  of  God,  is  calculated  to  excite  the  love  of  admiration 
and  gratitude  and  repose,  in  the  breast  of  man." 

(c)  I'lrskinc 


LECT.   XV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  75 

And  thus  a  divine  excellency  shines  forth,  not  only  from 
the  separate  characters  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity 
— not  only  from  the  great  design  formed  before  the  ages, 
of  which  excellency  they  are  the  expressions;  but  also  in 

THE    IMMEDIATE    EFFECTS     AND     RESULTS     OP    THE    WHOLE,    in 

man's  obedient  and  grateful  love  to  God,  and  devotedness 
of  heart  to  his  service. 

Thus  does  Christianity  elevate  and  ennoble  man,  aids  his 
mental  powers,  gives  him  sublimity  of  thought  and  concep- 
tion, raises  him  in  the  scale  of  moral  and  intellectual  being, 
touches  all  the  springs  of  his  purest  affections,  and  unites 
the  lofty  discoveries  of  the  incarnation,  with  that  practical 
love  and  obedience,  in  which  they  have  their  proper  effects 
and  consequences. 


LECTURE  XVI. 


THE  UNSPOTTED   PURITY   OF  THE  CHRISTIAN 
MORALS. 

Titus  ii.      11—15. 

For  the  grace  of  God  that  bringeih  salvation,  hath  appeared  to 
all  men,  teaching  ns  that,  denying  ungodliness  and  xeorldhj 
lusts,  we  should  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly,  in  this 
present  world.  Looking  for  that  blessed  hope  and  the 
glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ;  who  gave  himself  for  us,  thai  he  might  redeem  us  from 
all  iniquity,  and  purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous 
of  good  ivories.  These  things  speak  and  exhort  and  rebuke 
ivilh  all  authority.     Let  no  man  despise  thee. 

We  proceed  next  to  consider  tlie  unspotted  purity  of 
the  Christian  morals,  for  the  purpose  of  impressing  more 
vividly  on  the  minds  of  the  young,  Internal  tlie  excellency 
of  Revelation. 

In  this  branch  of  our  silbject  \vc  have  two  advantages. 

It  is  more  level  to  the  comprehension  of  man  than  the 
preceding  topics.  The  doctrines  which  we  considered  in  our 
last  Lecture,  are  in  themselves  matters  of  pure  Revelation. 
Not  so  the  morals.  Here  we  arc  in  some  measure  at  home. 
For  though  Christianity  lays  down  the   rule  of  tliem  in   a 


LECT.  XVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  77 

new  extent  and  purity,  employs  her  own  means  to  make 
them  practicable,  connects  them  with  her  revealed  doc- 
trines, and  enforces  them  with  her  peculiar  sanctions;  yet 
the  precepts  themselves  are  intelligible  to  man,  address  his 
conscience,  fall  in  with  all  his  convictions  as  an  accounta- 
ble creature,  and  have  been,  in  many  of  their  branches, 
acknowledged  in  every  age  and  in  every  part  of  the  world. 

A  second  advantage  is  the  confessions  of  unbelievers; 
who  with  one  mouth  are  compelled  to  admit  the  beauty  of 
the  Christian  morals.  Tliey  object,  indeed,  as  we  might 
anticipate,  to  some  of  the  details  of  them;  and  they  have  no 
real  desire,  as  we  shall  show,  to  promote  the  interests  of 
morality.  But  their  acknowledgments  are  therefore  the 
more  important,  when  they  allow  that  "the  gospel  is  one 
continued  lesson  of  the  strictest  morality;  of  justice,  of 
benevolence,  and  of  universal  charity,"''  and  when  they 
declare  they  would  preserve  Christianity,  for  the  sake  of  its 
moral  influence  on  the  common  people. 

With  these  points  in  our  favor,  let  us  consider — the  ex- 
tent AND  purity  of  the  Christian  morals.  The  manner  in 
which  they  are  rendered  practicable.  Their  insepara- 
ble CONNEXION  with  every  part  of  the  Revelation,  and 
especially  with  its  peculiar  doctrines.  And  the  sanctions 
by  which  they  are  ultimately  enforced.'' 

I.  The  EXTENT  AND  PURITY  of  the  Christian  morals  will 
appear,  if  we  consider  that, 

1.  They  embrace  all  that  was  really  good  in  the  ethics 
OF  HEATHEN  SAGES,  and  in  the  dictates  of  natural  religion; 

(a)  Bolingbroke— Herbert,  also,  Shaftsbury,  Collins,  Woolsloii,  Tiudal,  Chubb, 
applaud  tlic  Cliristiau  Morals.     Hume  and  Gibbon  admit  the  same. 

(b)  The  text  coutains  a  summary  of  each  of  these  particulars:— 1.  The  extent  and 
purity  of  the  Gospel  precepts;  Denying  ungodUnkss  and  worldly  lusts— live  sobaiij, 
righleousltj,  and  godly  in  this  present  world — zealous  of  good  %corks,   ■  ;  ■ ,.  - 

2.  The  manner  in  which  they  work:  purifying  unto  himself  a  peculiar  people. 

3.  The  connexion  with  the  doctrines  of  Revelation: — T(ie  grace  of  God  which 
bringeih  salvatioji,  Imth  appeared  unto  all  men,  teaching  us.  Looking  for  that  blessed 
hope  and  the  glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who 
gave  hitnselffor  us,  that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity. 

^  The  sanction: — tlie  glorious  a2>pearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour,  to 
judge  the  quick  and  deadj  and  in  what  the  closing  words  of  the  passage  imply; 
These  things  speak  and  exhort  and  rebuke  with  all  authority.  Let  no  man  despise 
thee. 


78  LECTURES    ON    THE  [leCT.    XVI, 

and  re-enact  them  with  greater  clearness  and  authority. 
The  scattered  fragments  of  mural  truth  which  original  Rev- 
elation, or  the  responsible  nature  of  man,  or  the  labor  and 
study  of  philosophers,  have  dispersed  up  and  down  the 
world,  are  found  to  be  comprehended  in  the  Christian 
code.  Trutli,  justice,  fortitude,  integrity,  faithfulness,  chas- 
tity, benevolence,  friendship,  obedience  to  parents,  love  of 
our  country,  and  whatever  else  is  praise-worthy,  have  all  their 
place;  only  cleared  of  base  admixtures,  directed  to  their 
proper  ends,  and  clothed  with  necessary  authority  for  sway- 
ing the  conscience. 

2.  There  is,  in  the  next  place,  a  completeness  in  the 
Christian  code  of  precepts.  They  insist  on  every  virtue  and 
duty  for  which  man  was  originally  formed;  and  forbid  every 
vice  and  sin  contrary  to  his  real  relations  and  obligations. 
There  is  nothing  wanting  as  it  respects  man's  intellectual  or 
moral  powers;  nothing  omitted  of  the  duties  which  he  owes  to 
liimself,  to  his  neighbor,  and  to  almighty  God:  nor  is  there 
any  thing  impure  or  debasing  intermixed  with  its  code.  All 
is  holy  and  consistent;  in  opposition  to  the  heathen  and  Ma- 
hometan morals,  where  whatever  is  good  itself,  is  lost 
amidst  the  pernicious  usages  WMth  which  it  is  incorporated. 

3.  Then  the  Christian  morals  erect  the  only  true  and 
unbending  standard  of  duty  to  God  and  man;  a  standard 
so  high,  and  yet  so  reasonable;  a  standard  so  unknown  to  any 
other  religion,  and  yet,  when  revealed,  so  obviously  agreea- 
ble to  the  sovereignty  of  the  ever-blessed  Creator,  and  the 
relation  in  which  man,  the  work  of  his  hands,  stands  to  him; 
a  standard  so  intelligible  to  the  meanest  capacity,  and  yet  so 
far  surpassing  the  imagination  of  the  highest,  as  to  have 
the  strong  impress  of  a  divine  hand  upon  it.  Yes;  when 
our  Lord  uttered  those  memorable  words,  thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  iciih  all  thy  heart,  and  ivith  all  thy  sotd,  and  ivith 
all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and  great  commandment,  end  the 
second  is  like  unto  it,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself '^ — 
he  raised  the  true  and  intelligible  standard  of  morals,  which 
places  even  a  child  in  a  Christian  country  far  above,  in  this 
respect,  the  greatest  moral  philosophers  of  the  ancient  or 
modern  world. 

(c)  Malt.  xxii.  37—39. 


LECT.  XVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  79 

4.  It  follows  from  this,  that  the  Christian  code  omits 
MANY  FALSE  VIRTUES  of  hcalhcnism,  and  insists  on  many 
REAL  ones  unknoicn  to  it.  Clirislianity  rejects  from  its  cat-- 
alogue  of  virtues,  vanity,  pride,  the  love  of  fume,  jealousy 
of  honor,  resentment,  revenge,  hatred  of  enemies,  contempt 
of  the  low  and  miserable,  self-confidence,  apathy  under  suf- 
fering, and  patriotism  in  the  sense  of  pushing  conquest 
and  upholding  the  interests  of  one  nation  to  the  hatred  and 
injury  of  others;  and  she  inserts  humility,  meekness,  the 
forgiveness  of  personal  injuries,  self-denial,  abstraction  of 
heart  from  earthly  things,  sympathy  with  the  poor  and 
mean,  renunciation  of  coniidence  in  self,  cheerful  resigna- 
tion under  affliction.'' 

5.  Indeed,  the  Christian  religion  chiefly  dwells  on  the 
'iTiLD  AND  RETIRING  VIRTUES,  in  Opposition  to  those  which 
are  of  a  more  hardy  and  obtrusive  character.  She  omits 
not,  indeed,  courage,  vigor  of  resolution,  eagerness  of  zeal, 
fortitude,  perseverance,  contempt  of  danger;  but  she 
dwells  chiefly  on  lowliness,  patience,  silent  and  meek  re- 
turns for  ill  usage,  gentleness,  compassion,  allowances  for 
the  prejudices  and  failings  of  others.  It  is  a  consequence 
of  this,  that  she  founds  her  code  on  humility  and  self-de- 
nial, though  she  avoids  moroseness,  austerities,  and  what- 
ever might  verge  towards  melancholy  and  misanthropy.  By 
laying  man  low,  and  giving  him  a  just  impression  of  his 
unworthiness  before  God  and  man,  and  then,  by  teaching 
him  to  deny  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  she  fixes  the  only 
firm  foundation  of  consistent  morality,  and  especially  of  the 
milder  virtues.  But  whilst  all  other  religions,  when  they 
attempt  this,  fall  into  foolish  and   absurd  injunctions,  sever- 

(d)  The  fonn  of  llie  argument  from  the  mere  purity  and  clearness  of  the  Gospe' 
inorals,  is  tiius  illustrated  by  an  able  American  writer: — "There  are  certain  primary 
principles  of  jurisprudence,  beneficial  to  mankind  under  all  circumstances.  But  no 
actuals3-stemof  human  jurisprudence  has  recog'nized  such  principles,  and  such  alone. 
K very  where  private  cupidity,  political  ambition,  ecclesiastical  or  professional  super- 
stition, prejudices  of  education,  old  habits,  personal  interests,  encumber  municipal 
|aw  with  idle  forms,  unmeanino;  distinctions,  &c.  If  a  code  were  to  be  presented 
professedly  from  heaven,  and  if  it  were  found  on  examination,  to  embody  all  that 
was  excellent  in  human  laws,  to  avoid  imperfections,  to  supply  deficiencies,  to  suit 
every  form  of  civil  polity,  and  all  understandings,  &c.,  would  such  a  claim  be  with- 
out foundation?'' — Verplank. 


80  LECTURF.S    ON    THE  [lECT.  XVI. 

itics  without  reason,  privations  which  vex  without  purifying 
man,  Christianity  is  as  lovely  as  she  is  self-denying.  She  is 
friendly  and  tender-hearted,  and  full  of  the  social  and  do- 
mestic ail'cctions  and  sympathies. 

6.  Once  more,  the  Chris^tian  religion  requires  an  absti- 
nence FROM  THE  PROXIMATE  CAUSES  OF  EVIL,  and  demands 
what  is  right  in  motive  and  intention,  aS  well  as  in  the  overt 
act.  Human  laws  chiefly  deal  with  the  manifest  action, 
when  capable  of  proof.  They  argue  back  very  feebly  to 
the  intention,  which  they  still  do  aim  at  reaching  as  they 
can.  The  divine  law  lays  the  restraint  upon  the  intention, 
the  first  element  of  the  moral  nature  of  mpn;  the  divine 
law  considers  nothing  to  be  virtuous,  unless  the  motive  as 
well  as  the  material  action  be  right;  the  divine  law  regu- 
lates the  inward  wheels  and  structure,  of  which  the  outwa-  i 
movement  is  the  indication;  the  divine  law  demands  an 
abstinence  from  every  appearance  of  evil,  from  the  proxi- 
mate causes  of  crime,  from  the  scenes,  the  places,  the 
books,  the  persons  which  create  the  temptation.  The  di- 
vine law  forbids  doubtful  indnlgencies,  questionable  pleas- 
ures, the  approach  towards  the  line  of  demarcation  between 
virtue  and  vice,  and  bids  men  cultivate  a  decided  intention 
and  study  of  obeying  God. 

7.  Accordingly,  Christian  morality  regards  all  outward 
forms  of  devotion  and  piety  as  means  to  a  higher  end, 
and  as  only  acceptable  to  God  when  connected  with  that 
higher  end.  In  this  it  stands  opposed  to  all  false  religions, 
which  invariably  connive  at  the  substitution  of  ceremonies 
and  ablutions,  for  moral  duty.  What  should  be  the  end  of 
religion  is  lost  in  the  means.  Christianity  knows  nothmg 
of  such  compromise.  J3ring  no  more  vain  oblations,  is  the 
remonstrance  of  the  Lord  by  his  prophet  with  the  hypocrit- 
ical people  of  his  day — incense  is  an  ahoviinaiion  unto  me; 
your  new  moons  and  your  appointed  feasts,  my  soul  haieth;  they 
are  a  trouble  unto  me;  I  am  iveary  to  bear  thcmS 

8.  Further,  the  Christian  precepts  all  hang  together  and 
AID  EACH  other;  and,  indeed,  are  necessary  the  one  to  the 

(c)  Isaiah  i.  13,  il. 


LECT.  XVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  81 

Other.  This  is  a  mark  of  a  di.vine  system.  The  morality 
of  the  gospel  coheres,  depends  each  part  on  every  other, 
and  springs  out  from  a  few  main  principles.  Humility  is 
essential  to  self-denial,  and  both  to  benevolence  and  com- 
passion: these  last  arc  indispensable  to  the  love  of  our  neigh- 
bor as  ourselves;  and  all  arc  required  to  subdue  rancor, 
envy,  ambition,  hatred:  and  when  these  are  subjugated,  the 
mild  and  retired  virtues  flourish;  whilst  the  same  genuine 
love  to  our  fellovv-men  keeps  them  from  falling  into  mo- 
roseness,  and  from  being  leavened  with  misanthropy.  And 
thus  the  completeness  of  the  Christian  code,  and  tlie  high 
standard  which  it  erects,  answer  to  the  beautiful  harmony 
of  the  various  particular  graces  in  the  actual  character  of 
the  Christian  disciple. 

9.  For  this  is  the  last  remark  which  I  offer  under  this 
head,  The  Christian  morals  go  to  form  a  particular  sort  of 
CHARACTEH,  of  such  exccllence  as  no  other  system  of  ethics 
ever  aimed  at.  Some  of  the  separate  duties  of  the  gospel 
were  not  unknown  to  heathen  philosophy; — fortitude,  chas- 
tity, truth,  justice,  equanimity,  the  doing  to  others  as  we 
would  they  should  do  unto  us,  &c.;  but  the  extent  and 
purity  of  the  Christian  morals  appear,  as  in  the  other  points 
already  mentioned,  so  especially  in  this,  tliat  they  go  to 
form  a  character  perfec-tly  attainable,  and  yet  altogether 
new  and  lovely — a  character  in  which  humility  and  self- 
knowledge  are  so  interwoven  with  meekness,  s|)irituality, 
disregard  to  earthly  things,  denial  of  selfishness  in  all  its 
forms,  prompt  and  sympathizing  benevolence,  active  zeal 
in  advancing  the  temporal  and  spiritual  welfare  of  man- 
kind, |iatience  under  sufferings,  forgiveness  of  injuries,  per- 
severing effort  in  every  good  word  and  work,  as  to  form  a 
temper  and  conduct  so  excellent  and  praiseworthy,  and  yet 
so  unknown  to  heathen  moralists,  as  to  stamp  upon  Chris- 
tianity the  seal  of  its  heavenly  origin.  And  this  is  the  more 
remarkable  because  Christianity  considers  all  separate  acts 
of  virtue  as  essentially  defective,  unless  they  are  directed  to 
the  formation  of  this  very  character,  and  are  adorned  with 
— what  is  completely  understood  to  be  the  summary  of 
moral  excellence — the.  Christian  spirit  and  temper. 
11 


82  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVI. 

II.  But  it  may  naturally  be  asked  in  what  way  does  the 

GOSPEL    PUOCEEU    TO    MAKE    THESE    PKECEPTS    PKACTICABLE 

what  is  the  course  she  pursues — where  does  she  begin,  and 
what  plan  does  she  recommend  to  her  disciples? 

1.  Christianity,  then,  begins  with  the  heart  of  man. 
This  is  implied  in  many  of  the  preceding  remarks.  She 
forms  the  lives  of  men  by  forming  their  dispositions.  She 
implants  every  principle  deep  in  the  soil,  lets  it  take  firm 
root  there,  and  thus  bring  forth  fruit,  wholesome,  season- 
able, abundant.  We  call  all  this  Christian  morals,  from  the 
common  language  of  mankindj  but  the  truth  is,  it  is  holi- 
ness, obedience  to  God,  spirituality;  which  as  much  ex- 
ceeds what  unbelievers  call  morality,  as  a  living  man  sur- 
passes a  picture.-"  No  other  religion  but  that  of  the  Bible 
takes  cognizance  of  the  heart;  and  yet  that  is  the  place 
where  all  effective  morals  must  begin;  and  therefore,  no 
other  religion  but  that  of  the  Bible  pursues  the  wise  and 
practicable  course.  Other  morals  end  in  theory;  Christian 
morals  lead  to  solid  and  positive  action. 

2.  In  the  next  place,  the  gospel  aims  at  aciiieving  its 
object  BY  THE  FORMATION  OF  HABITS,  wliicli  are  a  second 
nature,  or  rather,  the  elTcct  of  tiiat  new  nature,  which,  as 
we  saw  in  our  last  Lecture,  and  shall  soon  see  again,  Chris- 
tianity infuses.  It  works  not  by  occasional  impulses,  or  by 
acts  without  principles;  but  by  principles  carried  out  into 
acts,  and  thus  creating  determinate  and  holy  habits — the 
only  way  to  ojjerate,  eftectually  and  permanently,  so  far  as 
we  can  judge,  on  a  creature  like  man;  in  whom  repeated 
acts,  whether  of  corporeal  skill  or  intellectual  effort  or 
moral  virtue,  produce  a  facility  by  repetition,  and  recur  on 
the  recurring  occasion  with  augmented  ease,  and  with  less 
labor  of  reasoning  and  delay  in  comparing  opposing  pro- 
babilities. It  is  thus  the  racer  (both  in  a  natural  and  spirit- 
ual sense  of  the  word)  actjuires  vigour  in  his  course,  the 
wrestler  in  his  .struggle,  the  soldier  in  his  combat,  the 
scholar  in  his  discipline.''  Holy  habits  result  in  the  forma- 
tion of  what  we  mean  by  chahactkh,  which  is  the  end 
Revelation  has  in  view  in  its  morals. 

(j)  Aiiilrtw    Fuller.     Gosptl  ils  own   Wiliioss.     (k)  Euiler,  Horsky.  &:<•■. 


LECT.    XVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  83 

3.  Christianity,  further,  directs  men  to  aim  at  the  vert 

HIGHEST  ATTAINMENTS,  WHILST  SHE  ENCOURAGES  THE  WEAK- 
EST EFFORTS.  Never  did  any  religion  but  the  Christian  lay 
man  so  low  in  abasement  and  self-humiliation,  and  yet  at 
the  same  time  raise  him  to  such  a  height  of  holy  pursuit,  and 
cheer  him  with  such  encouragements  under  his  weakness 
and  failures.  Thus  it  unites  every  thing  requisite  in  the 
moral  machinery  which  is  to  operate  upon  man.  It  applies 
a  mighty  lever,  so  to  speak,  which  lifts  him  up  from  the 
depths  into  which  he  was  sunk,  and  places  him  on  the  ele- 
vated course  where  he  is  to  run  his  race.  It  says  to  him, 
Be  ye  hohj  as  God  is  holy; '  and  then  adds,  Coine  unto  me,  all 
ye  (hat  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  1  will  give  you  rest."^ 
It  bids  man  aim  at  the  standard  of  supreme  love  to  Almighty 
God,  and  of  love  to  his  neighbor  for  God's  sake;  and  yet 
assures  him  that  it  will  not  break  the  bruised  reed  nor  quench 
the  smoking Jl ax. ^*  It  never  says  to  him,  'You  have  done 
enough,  you  have  attained  a  sufficient  measure  of  holiness;' 
and  yet  it  never  says  to  him,  'Your  faulty  efforts  are  unac- 
ceptable, your  imperfect  beginnings  are  useless.'  In  short, 
it  animates  the  advanced  disciple  to  higher  attainments,  and 
condescends  to  the  infant  scholar  in  his  incipient  efforts: 
it  never  lowers  its  standard,  on  the  one  iiand,  nor  discour- 
ages the  feeblest  essays,  on  the  other;  but  unites  the  loftiest 
aim  with  the  most  genuine  humility  in  the  temper  of  its 
aspirants:  and  thus  carries  the  clearest  testimony  uithin 
itself  of  a  divinely  inspired  code. 

Again:  Revelation  works  its  practical  precepts  by  keep- 
ing ALOOF  FROM  SECULAR  POLICY  and  inferior  ends.  There 
is  a  superiority,  a  freedom  from  low  objects  and  concerns 
and  partizanships,  a  separate  and  elevated  and  undeviating 
purpose  in  Christian  morals,  which  exempt  them  from  the 
scufTle  of  human  passions  and  local  ambition.  There  is  no 
trimming,  no  time-servings  no  eye-service,  no  acceptance  of 
persons,  no  yielding  to  the  interests  of  this  or  that  party,  of 
this  or  that  individual;  no  subserviency  to  petty  projects 
or   human   contrivances;  nothing  like  the   schemes  of  hea- 

(I)  Luv.  xi.  tk    2  I^et.  i.  15,  IG.        (in)  Malt.  xi.  29,  30.        (n)  Isaiah  .\lii,  3. 


84  LECTURES    ON    THE  [r,ECT.    XVI. 

then  morality,  where  all  was  made  to  bend  to  st.Tte  policy 
and  the  ends  of  national  aggrandizement.  Christian  mor- 
ality knows  nothing  of  this.  She  teaches  rulers  and  sub- 
jects their  mutual  duties;  but  in  terms  applicable  to  all 
governments  and  every  form  of  j)olity.  She  ever  keeps  in 
view,  not  the  interests  of  a  fixvorcd  few,  but  the  general 
welfare  and  salvation  of  mankind  as  the  creatures  of  Al- 
mighty (lod. 

Christianity  sets  men  to  work,  also,  by  delivering  her  code 

IN     THE     FORM     OF     MAXIMS     AND     CLEAK,     DECISIVE     PHOIIIBf- 

TiONs,  rather  than  by  systematic  treatises  reasoned  out  in 
detail.  Thus  she  is  brief  and  intelligible.  The  ten  com- 
mandments, who  cannot  remeniiber?  The  vindication  of 
them,  in  the  sermon  on  the  Mount,  from  the  false  glosses  of 
the  Jews,  who  cannot  understand?  The  exposition  of  the 
Christian  temper,  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  Romans,  where 
is  the  lieart  which  does  not  feel?  The  picture  of  charity, 
in  the  thirteenth  of  the  first  of  Corinthians,  is  familiar  to  a 
chil(i.  The  maxims  of  the  book  of  Proverbs  are  in  every 
mouth.  Revelation,  thus,  does  not  reason  as  a  philosopher, 
but  commands  as  a  lawgiver.  We  observed  this  in  a  former 
lecture;"  but  this  is  the  place  for  applying  the  remark  to  the 
morals  of  the  Bible.  Revelation  utters  with  sententious 
authority  her  brief  determinations,  as  occasions  require,  in 
popular  language,  for  the  understanding  of  all;  and  leaves 
man  to  collect,  as  he  can,  her  maxims  into  systems,  or  com- 
pare and  illustrate  them  by  the  aid  of  sound  reason  and 
conscience.  Human  treatises  on  morals  stop  to  define  and 
prove  every  duty,  to  contrast  it  with  its  proximate  defect 
and  excess,  and  to  reduce  the  whole  to  an  elaborate  system. 
Revelation  takes  for  granted  that  man  knows  what  temper- 
ance, chastity,  fortitude,  benevolence  mean,  or  may  learn 
them  from  other  sources,  and  contents  herself  with  binding 
them  on  the  conscience.  The  consequence  is,  that  a  child 
at  school  in  a  Christian  country  knows  more  of  the  stand- 
ard of  morals,  and  the  details  of  social  virtue,  than  the 
most  learncfl  of  the  ancient  sajjes. 

(o)   Lort.  xiv. 


LECT      XVI.]         EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITY.  85 

Allied  with  the  preceding  observation  is  the  remark,  that 
the  gospel  works  its  moral  system  by  setting  every  thing 
forth  by  strong  and  affecting  examples.  This,  like 
almost  every  thing  else  in  this  fruitful  subject,  is  peculiar 
to  Christianity.  All  its  precepts  are  illustrated  and  embod- 
ied in  the  historical  parts  of  the  Bible.  All  the  separate 
virtues,  duties,  graces,  acts  of  abstinence  and  self  denial, 
effects  of  the  Christian  spirit,  and  of  its  principles  carried 
out  into  habit  and  character,  are  set  forth  in  tlie  lives  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles. 

All  the  infirmities  and  errors  and  vices  to  be  shunned, 
are  exposed  in  the  fearful  punishments  of  guilty  nations,  in 
the  destruction  of  the  cities  of  the  plain,  in  the  deluge,  in 
the  captivity  of  Babylon,  in  the  lives  of  wicked  princes — 
Pharaoh,  Saul,  Ahab,  Jehu,  Nebuchadnezzar.  With  this 
view,  also,  the  sins  and  falls  of  the  true  servants  of  God  are 
held  forth  for  our  caution,  with  a  fidelity  unknown  except 
in  the  inspired  Scriptures — the  drunkenness  of  Noah,  the 
incest  of  Lot,  the  falsehoods  uttered  by  Abraham  and  Jacob, 
the  irritated  expressions  of  Moses,  the  sin,  the  gross  and 
awful  sin,  of  David,P  the  rashness  of  Josiah.  And  in  the 
New  Testament,  the  infidelity  of  Peter,  and  the  dispute 
between  Paul  and  Barnabas,  to  say  nothing  of"  the  accounts 
of  the  ignorance  and  dulness  of  our  Lord's  disciples,  and 
of  the  corruptions  of  some  of  the  converts  in  the  first 
churches; — these  examples  deter  from  vice  by  exposing 
it  in  its  darkest  colors,  and  by  marking  the  severe  judg- 
ments of  God  which  followed  his  most  holy  and  sincere  ser- 
vants in  consequence  of  it.i 

(p)  A  lesson  this  of  the  greatest  moment  to  princes,  as  showing  the  connexion  of 
the  grossest  transgression  of  the  seventh  commandment,  with  the  concerted  and 
aggravated  breacli  of  the  sixth. 

(q)  The  attempts  made  by  infidel  writers  to  misrepresent  the  purport  of  some  of 
these  narratives  arc  too  absurd  to  be  noticed.  The  tendency  of  the  scriptural  ex- 
posure of  vice  is  to  excite  abhorrence;  to  which  the  plainness  and  brevity  of  its  de- 
scriptions, and  even  the  directness  of  the  terms  which  it  employs,  greatly  conduce. 

It  may  be  observed  here,  how  pure  and  manly  is  the  delineation  of  the  Christian's 
love  to  his  Redeemer  and  to  his  fellow-creatures,  as  detailed  in  the  Scriptures. 
There  is  nothing  of  effeminacy;  nothing  that  can  be  misinterpreted;  all  is  elevated 
and  holy.  In  like  manner,  the  accounts,  the  necessary  accounts  of  vice  and  crime, 
are  most  pure,  and  calculated,  like  the  inquiries  of  a  physician,  to  promote  the 


86  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVI. 

I  do  not  dwell  on  the  examples  which  hold  forth  the 
duties  of  parents  and  children,  of  masters  and  servants,  of 
liusbands  and  wives;  nor  on  (hose  which  exhibit  the  minis- 
ter, the  missionary,  the  teacher  of  youth.  Nor  do  I  dwell 
on  the  examples  which  display  the  faults  and  excellencies 
of  nations,  of  bodies  politic,  of  legislators,  of  magistrates, 
of  churches  and  spiritual  societies.  It  is  sufficient  for  me 
to  have  shown  the  plan,  in  this  respect,  on  which  the  Chris- 
tian morals  work — by  strong  and  affecting  examples. 

I  add  only,  that  it  proceeds  by  referring  men  to  the  all- 
seeing  EYE  OF  God,  and  the  constant  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Christian  morality  is  built  on  the  faith  of  the  invisible  God 
who  seeth  in  secret,  and  on  the  habitual  persuasion  of  the 
agency  of  the  Blessed  Spirit,  which  is  granted  to  all  them 
that  ask  for  it. 

But  this  leads  us  to  consider — 

III.  The  inseparable  connexion  of  the  morals  of 
christianitf  with  every  other  part  of  revelation, 
and  especially  with  its  peculiar  doctrines. 

For,  notwithstanding  this  extent  and  purity  of  the  Chris- 
tian theory  of  morals,  and  those  subordinate  means  by 
which  it  works,  the  question  yet  remains — What  is  to  set 
the  machine  actually  in  motion.''  What  are  to  constitute 
the  prevailing  motives  of  duty.''  Every  rule  is  a  constraint, 
and  every  constraint  is  unpleasant.  We  must,  therefore, 
have  motives — powerful,  because  we  have  to  conquer  pow- 
erful passions — universal,  because  morals  are  designed  for 
all  men — permanent,  because  virtue  is  necessary  for  all 
times  and  all  places.'' 

Here,  then,  the  peculiar  truths  of  the  gospel,  as  well  as 
those  other  parts  of  Revelation  with  wjiich  the  precepts  are 
inseparably  connected,  appear  in  all  their  influence.  It  is 
on  the  deep  and  ample  basis  of  the  Christian  doctrine  that 
the  whole  superstructure  of  Christian  morals  is  grounded. 

recovery  of  man.  A  few  expressions  have  acquired  an  imporl,  from  the  mere  lapse 
of  time  since  our  English  translation  was  made,  not  originally  designed,  and  are 
instantly  corrected  by  every  reader. 

(r)  Frassynous. 


LECT.    XVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  87 

The  facts  on  which  these  doctrines  rest,  prepaue  fou 
THE  OPERATION  OF  MOTIVES  most  poweiful,  univcrsal.  and 
permanent. 

The  facts  of  the  fall  and  corruption  of  man;  of  the  mercy 
of  God  in  the  gift  of  his  own  Son;  of  the  birth,  sutTerings, 
and  death  of  Jesus  Christ;  of  the  descent  and  operations  of 
the  Holy  Ghost;  of  the  promulgation  of  the  Christian  religion 
and  its  offers  to  mankind — these  great  facts  fill  the  mind  of 
the  penitent  with  such  a  sense  of  the  awful  justice  of  God, 
of  the  inconceivable  evil  of  sin,  of  the  unspeakable  love 
and  mercy  of  tlie  Almighty  to  a  guilty  world,  as  prepare 
for  the  formation  of  the  Christian  character;  as  make  sin 
the  object  of  abhorrence,  and  holiness  of  choice  and  pur- 
suit. The  facts  of  Christianity,  brought  home  to  man's 
heart,  and  having  their  influence  actually  upon  his  con- 
science, that  is,  being  truly  believed,  render  morals  practica- 
ble, natural,  delightful.  The  machine  is  set  at  work.  Ex- 
actly as  the  immoralities  of  the  heathens  were  connected 
with  their  vile  superstitions,  were  a  part  of  them,  were  per- 
mitted by  the  laws  of  every  heathen  people,  and  incorpor- 
ated with  the  usages  of  their  tem])les  and  their  religion; 
so  the  pure  and  lovely  morality  of  the  gospel  is  connected 
with  th.c  FACTS  of  Christianity,  forms  a  part  of  the  religion, 
and  is   incorporated    with  all   its  worship   and  observances. 

Further,  the  doctrines  of  Revelation  are  expressly  de- 
signed and  admirably  adapted  to  produce  Christian  obedi- 
ence. He  that  receives  Christianity  aright,  not  only  be-'* 
lieves  the  facts  on  which  it  rests,  but  embraces  the  peculiar 
doctrines  which  explain  those  facts,  in  order  that  he  may 
become  the  servant  of  God.  He  receives  the  doctrine  of 
man's  guilt  and  condemnation,  and  thereby  learns  to  mourn 
over  and  forsake  every  sin;  he  receives  the  glad  tidings  of 
joy  in  the  salvation  of  Christ,  and  then  loves  and  obeys  this 
new  master  in  every  future  act  of  his  life;  he  receives  the 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  and  he  proves  that  faith  by 
its  proper  effects;  he  receives  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
G.host,  and  he  implores  his  promised  grace,  to  renew  his 
heart  and  to  dis[>ose  him  to  love  and  practice  the  law  of 
God;  he  receives  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments  and  other 


88  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVI. 

means  of  grace,  and  by  them  he  obtains  strength  for  per- 
severing obedience.  And  why  should  I  say  a  word  of  the 
immediate  connexion  of  the  doctrines  of  the  holy  character 
of  God  and  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  and  eternal 
judgment,  with  that  obedience  which  cannot,  even  by  sup- 
position, be  disjoined  in  the  Christian's  mind  and  conscience 
from  ihcni?  Thus  there  is  no  truth  conveyed  in  the  doc- 
trines, without  a  correspondent  obligation  enforced  in  the 
precepts.  Holiness  is  the  end  in  view  of  the  whole  Revela- 
tion, modified  by  the  particular  dispensation  of  the  Son  and 
Spirit  of  God.  All  meritorious  confidence  is,  indeed,  re- 
nounced; but  "the  dutiful  necessity"^  of  good  works  is 
greatly  increased  by  every  truth  relating  to  our  salvation. 
For  it  is  further  to  be  noted,  that  the  peculiar  doctrines 
of  Revelation  go  to  form  exactly  that  sort  of  character, 
AND  NO  other,  w'hich  THE  MORALS  REQUIRE;  and  that  the 
precepts  delineate  and  require  that  sort  of  character,  and 
no  other,  which  the  doctrines  go  to  form — that  peculiar 
Christian  spirit,  I  mean,  which  we  have  already  shown  to  be 
the  end  in  view  in  the  performance  of  each  particular  duty. 
The  Christian  spirit  is  humble  and  lowly;  founded  on 
renunciation  of  self-righteousness  and  self-confidence;  warm- 
ed with  active  benevolence  and  sympathy  for  the  spiritual 
and  temporal  wants  of  man;  accompanied  with  meekness, 
patience,  and  forgiveness  of  injuries.  And  it  is  obvious 
that  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  gospel  go  to  form  this 
sort  of  character,  and  no  other.  For  the  facts  on  which 
they  rest  inspire  a  general  abhorrence  of  sin,  and  an  admira- 
tion of  the  love  of  God;  and  the  jiroper  consequence  of 
receiving  the  doctrines  is  to  perform  coirespondent  duties: 
the  result,  therefore,  of  a  cordial  acquiescence  in  all  the 
doctrines  will  be  the  formation  of  the  peculiar  sort  of 
character  which  the  Christian  precepts  delineate  and  re- 
quire. That  is,  the  doctrine  of  the  guilt  of  man,  produc- 
ing humiliation  and  penitence;  and  the  doctrine  of  forgive- 
ness and  of  sanctifying  grace,  producing  holy  love  and  obe- 
dience: the  more  these  are  wrought  into  the  mind  and  hab- 

(s)  Hooker. 


LECT.    XVI.]  KVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  89 

its,  the  more  powerful  will  be   the  impress,  the   peculiar 
impress  of  the  Christian  character. 

This  we  find  to  be  the  case  in  point  of  fact.  The  over-^ 
whelming  love  of  Christ  constrains,  bears  away,  puts  a 
holy  necessity,  as  it  were,  upon  the  penitent, 7o  lire,  not  unto 
himself,  but  unto  him  that  loved  him  and  gave  himself  for  him, 
and  rose  again.  He  is  not  his  own}  He  is  dedicated,  made 
over,  resigned  by  a  voluntary  surrender,  to  the  service  of 
his  divine  Lord.  Thus,  gratitude,  admiration,  love  of  God 
and  man,  detachment  from  the  world,  spirituality  of  mind, 
patience  under  injuries;  that  is,  the  very  character  which 
the  morals  delineate  and  demand,  is  the  natural  result  of 
the  peculiar  doctrines.  These  great  discoveries,  brought 
near  and  made  effectual  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  are  an  ever- 
living  spring  of  vigorous  and  self-denying  obedience.  They 
perpetually  supply  principles  of  hatred  of  sin,  of  self-abase- 
ment, of  thankfulness  and  joy;  which,  like  a  fountain,  feed 
the  streams  of  actual  eftbrt  and  practical  obedience. 

Once  more,  the  promises  and   privileges   of  the  gospel 
are  attached  to  certain  dispositions  and  states  of  mind, 
which  are  essential  parts  of  the  morals  of  Revelation.     The 
promises  are   chiefly  made  to  certain  characters — to  those 
who  are  meek,  to  those   who   pray,  to  those  who  seek  God, 
to  those  who  quit  the  society  of  the  wicked,  to  those  who 
love  their  brethren,  to  those  who  watch,  to  those  who  per- 
severe in  well-doing,  etc.;  that  is,  the  promises  are  the  most 
direct  motives,  not  only  to  obedience,  but  to  that  particular 
sort  of  obedience   which   distinguishes   the  true   Ciiristian. 
What  can  be  a  more  striking  instance  of  this,  than  our  Lord's 
attaching  the  most  difhculi   of  all  duties— the   forgiving  of 
personal  injuries — to  the  most  exalted  of  all  blessings,  God's 
forgiveness  of  sins;  so  that  in  every  age  and  every  part  of 
the  world,  wherever  Christianity  spreads,  the  duty  most  op- 
posed to  our  natural  corruption,  and   yet  most  characteris- 
tic of  the  peace  and  purity  of  the  gospel,  is  indissolubly  uni- 
ted with  the  most  prominent  doctrine  of  Revelation,  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  in  Jesus  Christ. 

(t)  2  Cor    V.  11.  15;  1  Cor.  vi.  19,20. 

12 


90  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.     XVI. 

It  is  another  link  in  this  cliain  of  argument,  that  Chris- 
tianity iiolds  out  to  men  fuhtheu  advances  i\  holiness, 
as  the  recompense  and  reward  of  diligence,  and  not  a  fur- 
ther insight  into  mysteries  and  loftier  heights  ofknowlcdge. 
Most  false  religions  propose  to  reward  their  votaries  by 
drawing  aside  the  vail  which  conceals  from  the  vulgar  eye 
their  hidden  mysteries.  The  Hindoo  superstitions,  those  of 
China,  the  false  religion  of  Mahomet,  act  thus.  They  fall 
in  with  tiie  principle  of  curiosity  and  the  ambition  of  knowl- 
edge in  man.  Christianity  prefers  moral  to  intellectual 
excellency,  and  proposes  to  her  followers,  as  the  recom- 
pense of  their  present  attainments,  further  advances  in  ho- 
liness, in  the  love  of  God,  in  the  obedience  of  Christ,  in 
meetness  for  heaven.  Thus,  all  her  promises  bear  upon 
morals,  and  ':end  to  strengthen  the  obligations  of  them. 

The  doctrine  of  the  heavenly  state  and  of  the  prepara- 
tion for  tiie  employments  of  it,  give  the  last  seal  to  the  truth 
of  what  wc  are  now  considering — the  connexion  of  the 
morals  of  Christianity  with  its  peculiar  discoveries.  For 
what  is  the  dof^trine  of  the  heavenly  state,  but  that  holi- 
ness is  its  very  element,  that  all  sin,  all  impurity,  all 
error,  all  defect,  will  be  excluded;  and  that  it  is  to  be 
prepared  for  by  that  obedience,  that  holy  faith  and  love, 
that  meekness  and  spirituality,  which,  like  the  bud,  are 
to  be  expanded  in  all  their  beauty  and  fragrance  in  that 
more  genial  soil?  Holiness  is  therefore  the  first  stage, 
the  commencement,  the  dawn  of  that  character,  of  which 
heaven  is  the  completion,  the  end,  the  eftulgence.  Unlike 
the  WTCtchcd  paradise  of  Mahometanism,  which  casts  its  im- 
purities into  the  very  heart  of  its  precepts,  by  ihe  volup- 
tuous and  degrading  pleasures  which  it  promises  in  its  Para- 
dise; Christianity  impresses  this  master-truth  upon  man, 
that  what  we  are  in  this  world,  we  shall  be  in  another;  that 
a  future  state  will  develope,  not  change,  the  character  ac- 
quired on  earth;  that  life  is  the  seed-time,  of  which  the  har- 
vest will  be  reaped  throughout  eternity. 

And  this  being  the  intimate  relation  of  tlic  Christian  pre- 
cepts with  its  great  doctrines,  why  should  I  detain  you  by 
entering  into  the  manner  in  which  these  precepts  arc  in- 


LECT.  XVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  91 

Volved    IN    ALL    THE    OTTIKR  PARTS  OF  RKVELATION?       Tcll    IllG 

vvliat  chapter  in  the  Pcntateucli  is  not  filled  with  exhorta- 
tions, examples,  warnings.  Point  out  to  me  the  historical 
book  which  is  not  fraught  with  moral  instruction.  Show 
me  in  the  devotional  writings  a  single  psalm  which  does  not 
imply  the  most  ardent  pursuit  of  obedience.  And  with 
regard  to  the  Holy  Prophets,  what  is  the  scope  of  all  their 
remonstrances,  so  bold,  so  fervent;  what  the  end  of  all  their 
persuasions  and  invitations;  what  the  design  of  their  denun- 
ciations of  idolatry  and  rebellion  of  heart  in  man;  what  the 
purport  of  their  prophetic  outline  of  future  events,  whether 
relating  to  the  times  near  at  hand,  or  looking  forward  to 
the  coming  of  Messiah  and  the  long  series  of  the  divine 
providence  towards  the  church — what,  what  is  all  the  ob- 
ject in  view,  but  to  reduce  a  disobedient  nation  to  peni- 
tence and  subjection  to  the  command  of  God?  I  will  not 
dwell  on  the  Evangelical  history,  and  the  epistles  of  the 
holy  apostles,  because  every  child  knows  that  holiness  is 
the  end  and  scope  of  them.  What  is  there  omitted,  for 
example,  by  St.  Paul;  to  enforce  upon  his  converts,  in  all  his 
writings,  the  obedience,  the  peculiar  and  characteristic 
obedience,  of  Christianity?  How  often  does  he  descend 
from  the  very  heights  of  his  holy  doctrines,  to  urge  some 
duty,  to  impress  upon  man  some  part  of  the  Christian  tem- 
per and  conduct!  "  It  is  the  glory  of  Christianity  that  her 
loftiest  prophecies,  her  deepest  rnysteries,  iier  most  fervent 
devotions,  not  only  inspire  holiness,  but  aim  at  it,  are  essen- 
tially linked  with  it,  and  lose  all  their  end  if  it  be  not  pro- 
duced. In  short,  as  the  precepts  without  the  doctrines 
of  Revelation,  prescribe  an  unattainable  rule,  so  the  doc- 
trines without  the  precepts  fail  in  their  great  purpose,  evap- 
orate in  mere  emotions  and  sensibilities,  and  can  neither 
sanctify  nor  save. 

IV.  But  what,  it  may  be  asked,  are  the  sanctions  by 
WHICH  THE  CHRISTIAN  MORALS  arc  ultimately  enforced? 

This  is  the  important  ([uestion.  Whatever  be  the  extent 
and  purity  of  the  rule,  whatever  the  means  by  which  it 
works,   whatever  its   inseparable   connexion  with   the  doc- 

(ii)  See  as  an  e.vainple,  I  Cor.  xv.  55 — 58. 


92  LKCTL'RES    ON    THE  [lECT.     XVI. 

trines  of  Revelation,  all  is  inefficient,  unless  the  authority 
which  it  brings  to  bear  upon  the  conscience,  and  the  re- 
wards and  punishments  attached  to  it  are  weighty,  solemn, 
efficacious. 

A  hand  dissevered  from  the  body,  might  as  well  be  rep- 
resented as  sufficient  for  the  purpose  of  labor,  as  uncon- 
nected and  unauthoritative  principles  for  the  purposes  of 
morality. 

Heathen  morals,  in  addition  to  innumerable  other  defi- 
ciencies, labored  under  one  which  was  fatal  to  the  whole 
system;  they  had  no  sanction,  no  authority,  no  knowledge 
clear  and  definite  of  a  future  state  or  an  eternal  judgment. 
The  faint  Light  of  reason,  the  voice  of  conscience,  the  frag- 
ments of  tradition,  were  utterly  insufficient  to  bind  men. 
It  was  the  state,  the  civil  law,  usage,  convenience,  which 
formed  the  quicksand  on  which  their  edifice  was  reared. 
Infidelity  builds  on  no  firmer  foundation,  when  she  pretends 
to  raise  her  morals  on  tlie  love  of  glory,  honor,  interest, 
utility,  and  the  progress  of  civilization,  with  some  feeble 
admissions  of  the  belief  of  a  future  life. 

Christianity  stands  forth  in  the  midst  of  mankind,  the  only 
religion  which  asserts  the  will  of  God  to  be  the  clear  and 
unbending  rule  of  duty,  and  refers  men  to  an  eternal  judg- 
ment as  its  ultimate  sanction.  Her  morality  conduces,  in- 
deed, to  the  welfare  of  man,  it  is  agreeable  to  the  reason  of 
things,  it  responds  to  the  voice  of  conscience;  but  none  of 
these  is  its  foundation — to  argue  morals  out  on  these  princi- 
ples has  been  proved,  by  tlie  experience  of  all  ages,  to  be 
impossible. 

The  wii.L  OF  Gon  is  the  brief,  undeviating  authority  of 
moral  obedience.  And  what  majesty  doth  this  throw  around 
the  precepts  of  the  Bible!  Thus  saith  tlie  Lord,  is  the  in- 
troduction, the  reason,  the  obligation  of  every  command. 
God  appears  as  the  legislator,  the  moral  governor,  the  Lord 
of  his  accountable  creatures.  He  speaks — and  oil  the  earth 
keeps  silence  before  him!  "' 

And  why  should  I  contrast  the  partial  guesses  of  Pagan- 
ism or  Infidelity  on   a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punish- 

(v)  Ihih.  ii,  20. 


LECT.    XVI.]  EVIDENCES     OF     CHRISTIANITY.  93 

ment,  with  the  full  and  decisive  declarations  of  that  gospel 
by  which  Jifc  and  immortality  are  brought  to  lights  "■"  Nature 
is  ignorant.  Nature  knows  nothing  distinctly  of  the  rules 
of  the  last  judgment.  Nature  can  give  no  account  of  heav- 
en and  hell.  Revelation  alone  pronounces  with  its  awful 
voice  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Revelation  unveils  the 
eternal  world.  Revelation  makes  all  its  doctrines  and  all 
its  precepts  bear  upon  the  last  dread  assize,  when  the  se- 
crets of  all  hearts  shall  be  disclosed — when  the  books  shall 
be  opened,  when  the  sea  shall  give  up  the  dead  that  are  in  it,  and 
every  man  shall  be  judged  out  of  the  things  written  in  the  books, 
according  to  his  ivorks^  These  are  the  proper  sanctions  of 
morals.  The  purity  of  the  code  answers  to  the  obligation 
of  the  enactments;  the  means  or  machinery  it  employs,  cor- 
responds with  the  importance  of  the  consequences.  The 
doctrines  by  which  it  is  sustained  are  the  suitable  aids  and 
encouragements  for  duties  of  such  momentous  import.  An 
infinite  God,  an  infinite  rcwarder,  an  infinite  avenger — a 
judge  of  omniscient  and  omnipotent  authority,  a  sentence 
of  unmixed  justice,  a  reward  of  unparalleled  grace,  a  final 
and  impartial  settlement  of  the  disordered  state  of  the  world 
by  the  Creator  and  Preserver  of  all — these  are  considera- 
tions which  give  a  sublimity  to  the  Christian  morals,  and 
attach  an  importance  and  weight  to  them  which  render  them 
ihe  only  influential  rule  of  human  practice.  To  talk  of  mo- 
rality without  religion,  is  to  talk  of  a  legislation  without  a 
legislator.  To  talk  of  a  religion  without  a  distinct  and 
solemn  sanction  derived  from  the  proper  evidences  of  a 
divine  Revelation,  is  to  talk  the  language  of  general,  un- 
meaning declamation,  which  can  neither  animate  nor  con- 
trol the  heart.  But  to  point  out  the  Christian  morals 
expounded  in  their  purity  and  extent,  furnished  with  ample 
means  of  becoming  practicable,  interwoven  with  the  most 
powerful  motives,  and  confirmed  ultimately  by  the  most 
solemn  and  precise  sanctions,  is  to  propose  the  true  guide 
of  life,  the  authoritative  arbiter  of  human  duty,  the  solemn 
and  eflicacious  motive  for  the  conduct  of  a  reasonable  and 
accountable  being. 

(w)  2  Tim.  i,  10.  (x)  Rev.  .\x,  11—13. 


94  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVI. 

It  adds  incomparably  to  the  force  of  these  sanctions,  that 
they  arc  propounded  continually  by  our  Lord  and  his  apos- 
tles, in  the  course  of  those  very  discoveries  of  grace,  which 
at  first  sight  might  appear  to  interfere  with  them.  In  the 
midst  of  the  discourses  of  Christ,  and  his  exposition  of  the 
gospel  to  the  Jews,  there  are  interposed  those  direct  asser- 
tions of  the  universal  judgment  and  its  invariable  decisions, 
which  prevent  any  abuse  of  the  grace  and  privileges  offered 
— whilst  the  apostles  are  perpetually  reminding  their  con- 
verts, that  God  is  not  mocked,  that  we  must  all  appear  before 
the  judgment  scat  of  Christ,  and  that  every  man  shall  receive  the 
things  done  in  the  body  J 

Nor  is  it  a  slight  matter,  that  in  the  description  given  by 
our  Saviour  of  the  proceedings  of  that  last  day,  happiness 
and  misery  are  adjudged,  not  on  the  footing  of  faith  or  love, 
which  are  hidden  principles  known  only  to  Almighty  God, 
but  on  the  footing  of  works,  good  or  evil,  manifested  before 
men,  and  shown  to  flow  from  faith  in  the  merits  of  the 
Redeemer  in  the  one  case,  and  contempt  of  him  in  the 
other.^ 

On  the  whole,  then,  I  must  confess,  when  I  review  this 
great  subject,  that  the  morals  taught  in  the  gospel  seem  to 
me  to  place  Revelation  as  far  above  the  reach  of  merely 
human  invention,  and  to  carry  along  with  them  as  clear  an 
impress  of  a  divine  hand,  as  the  general  adaptation  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  state  of  man,  or  the  grand  and  sublime  plan 
of  human  salvation  developed  in  its  doctrines.^*  In  fact, 
the  argument  from  the  Christian  morals,  is,  if  possible, 
stronger  than  that  from  the  preceding  topics,  because,  as  I 
have  said,  it  is  more  intelligible  to  every  human  being. 

1.     The  morality  of  the  gospel  makes  it  i.mi'ossible,  in 

THE    NATURi:    OF    THINGS,    THAT    CHllISTIANITY  SHOULD    BE    AN 

IMPOSTUUE.  This  is  my  first  remark  in  concluding  this  lec- 
ture. I  do  not  merely  affirm,  that  the  Christian  morals 
strengthen  the  impression  of  truth  derived  from  the  external 
evidences  (which  is  all  my  argument  demands,)  but  I  assert 
that  no  w  ickcd  men  could  have  invented,  or  could  have 
wished  to  propose,  or  could  have  succeeded  in  establishing, 

(>)  Gal.  vi,  7.     2  Cor.  V,  10.  (z)  Mall.  .x.w.  (a)  Lect. xiv,  and  xv. 


LEC'T.     XVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  95 

sucli  a  religion,  with  such  a  code  of  precepts  so  insepara- 
bly united  with  it  and  springing  from  it.  From  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world  to  the  present  hour,  the  schemes  of  impos- 
tors have  partaken,  and  from  the  very  constitution  of  the 
human  mind  must  partake,  of  the  pride,  the  ambition,  the 
restlessness,  the  cunning,  the  sensuality,  the  personal  inter- 
ests, the  contempt  of  authority,  from  which  they  spring. 
All  the  superstitions  of  Paganism,  as  well  as  the  imposture 
of  the  false  prophet,  explain  themselves  on  this  ground. 
We  see,  in  the  laxity  and  turpitude  of  their  moral  systems, 
a  sufficient  agreement  with  their  pretended  revelations. 

I  ask,  then,  with  regard  to  Christianity,  what  could  be 
the  object — the  cui  bono — of  an  imposture,  accompanied 
with  a  code  of  precepts  so  consistent,  pure,  elevated,  com- 
plete, and  in  harmony  with  every  part  of  the  religion.'*  The 
case  speaks  for  itself.  Such  precepts  could  only  have 
come  down  from  the  Father  of  lights,  and  have  formed  part 
of  a  Revelation  sustained,  as  Christianity  was,  by  every  other 
species  of  external  and  internal  testimony. 

In  fact,  the  fishermen  of  Galilee,  even  if  they  had  been 
ever  so  pure  in  heart,  (which  the  supposition  of  imposture 
makes  impossible)  could  never  have  composed  a  system  of 
duty  so  new,  so  peculiar,  so  holy,  so  perfect.  See  how 
slowly  and  laboriously  the  science  of  morals,  as  a  philo- 
sophical eflort,  is  wrought  out,  even  at  the  present  day,  by 
professed  Christians,  and  with  all  the  aid  of  long  experi- 
ence, acute  talents,  and  assiduous  study — the  defects,  the 
gross  defects  of  these  systems  are  notorious.''  And  yet  the 
morals  of  the  gospel,  without  any  pretensions  to  scientific 
arrangement,  and  composed  by  men  of  ordinary  talents, 
amidst  persecutions,  and  exile,  and  imprisonments,  are 
found  to  contain  the  most  pure  and  harmonious  system  of 
moral  truth.  That  is,  the  only  perfect  code  bursts  suddenly 
upon  the  world  complete  at  once;  and  the  improvement 
which  two  thousand  years  have  produced,  in  those  who 
judge  of  this  subject,  and  bring  the  gospel  to  the  trial  con- 
cerning it,  only  serves  to  illustrate  the  wisdom  of  divine 
Revelation  by  the  contrast  with  human  weakness  and  folly.'" 

(b)  Sec  Rcid,  Stewart,  Brown,  &.c.      (c)  Dr.  lley's  Lcct.  in  Bp.  Burd  Sumner. 


96  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVl. 

But  this  consideration   is  incomparably  strengthened,  if 
we  turn  to  the  avketched  systems  which  modern  infidels 

PROPOSE    FOR    THE    DIRECTION  OF  MANKIND.       I   should  father 

say  their  want   of  system — nay,  their  want  of  any  honest 
intention  to  promote  morality.      They  talk  sometimes  of 
moral  duty,  ihey  commend  the  gospel  precepts,  they  vaunt 
the  light  of  nature   and  the  sufficiency  of  human  reason; 
but  when  you  watch  them  in  detail,  you  discover  that  there 
is   neither   foundation   nor  superstructure;   neither  princi- 
ples   nor    duties;    neither  rules   nor  exhortations    in    their 
code   of  morality.        As    to    authority    and    sanction,   the 
ablest   of  them''    doubt   of  the   immortality  of  the    soul, 
doubt    of   a    last    judgment,    doubt   of  eternal    happiness 
and  misery.      Were  their  systems,  therefore,  ever  so  per- 
fect, they  would  have  far  less  force  to  bind  the  conscience 
than    the    very    morals    of   heathenism.      But   what,    after 
all,  are  their  systems.''      They  agree  in  excluding  the   di- 
vine   Being   from   their  theories;  but  upon   no  other  point. 
One  resolves  all  morality  into  self-love — another  into  the 
law  of  the  state — another  into  motives  of  interest — another 
into  what  is  useful  in  society — whilst  another  has  recourse 
to  feeling,  and  asserts  that  whatever  he  feels  to   be  right, 
is  right.*^     On   these   quicksands  what  durable   edifice  can 
arise.^      None.      There    is   no  bond  of  society  so  sacred 
which  they  do  not  burst  asunder — there  is  no  personal  duty 
so  universally  admitted,  which  they  do  not  impugn — female 
modesty   itself  cannot   maintain   its   ground   before    their 
coarse  depravity.     I  do  not  scruple  to  say  that  the  tenden- 
cy, and  I  believe    in  most   cases  the   design,  of  our  infidel 
writings,  is  to  dig  up  the    foundation   of  morals,  to  efface 
the  distinctions  of  good  and  evil,   and   resign  men  to  the 
wretched  contest  of  base  interests  and  civil  restraints,  witii- 
out  a  God,  without  a  providence,  without  a  day  of  retribu- 
tion, without  a  futurity. 

From  such  darkness  wc  turn  to  the  soft  and  healins  light 
of  the  Christian  morality,  as  the  traveller  hails  the  dawn  of 
day  after  a  howling,  tempestuous  night. 

(d)  Hume,  Gibbou.  &€.  (o)  See  Leland,  and  Fuller. 


LECT.   XVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  97 

I  appeal  to  every  heart  before  me.  I  ask  every  ingenu- 
ous youth  whether  he  is  not  horror-struck  with  the  frightful 
projects  of  unbelief;  whether  his  whole  moral  nature  is  not 
shocked  by  their  principles;  and  whether  their  rejection  of 
Christianity  is  not  an  unavoidable  consequence  of  their 
holding  such  opinions?  Yes.  You  can  no  more  reject 
Christianity,  if  you  are  candid  and  sincere  in  your  inquiries 
after  morality,  than  you  can  cast  off  your  accountableness 
or  your  personal  identity.  Such  pure  morals,  working  by 
such  means,  sustained  by  such  motives,  and  sanctioned  by 
an  eternal  judgment,  carry  their  own  divine  original  with 
them,  and  need  no  detail  of  arguments. 

III.  Hoi.D  FAST,  then,  by  the  christian  faith.  Re- 
member the  argument  of  this  discourse  in  the  hour  of  temp- 
tation. Call  it  to  mind  when  the  series  of  external  proofs 
may  be  less  vividly  present  with  you.  Say  to  yourself — 
'Even  if  I  were  to  be  unable  to  answer  the  objections  of 
unbelievers  on  every  other  question,  yet  the  morals  of  Chris- 
tianity make  it  incomparably  my  safer  course  to  obey  the 
gospel.  There  can,  I  know,  be  no  comparison,  properly 
speaking,  between  the  safety  of  receiving  and  rejecting  such 
a  revelation,  resting  on  such  accumulated  evidences.  But 
even  if  an  adversary  should  perplex  me  in  the  historical 
argument,  if  he  should  bewilder  my  mind,  and  persuade  me 
that  the  proofs  are  not  sufficiently  clear  and  satisfactory, 
let  me  remember  that  it  must  ever  be  my  safer  course  to 
persevere  in  my  adherence  to  the  gospel.  For  where  a 
code  of  morals  so  pure,  so  benevolent,  so  spiritual,  so  en- 
tirely agreeing  with  the  light  of  reason  and  the  moral  sense 
of  man,  so  directly  tending  to  my  present  peace  of  con- 
science as  well  as  my  future  happiness;  when  such  a  code 
is  set  before  me,  it  is  infinitely  safer  for  me  to  obey  it,  than 
to  take  a  contrary  course;  because,  in  obeying  it  I  lose 
nothing,  I  venture  nothing,  I  incur  no  possible  risk.  I  am 
following  nature;  but  nature  corrected  and  illuminatcfl — I 
am  following  the  law  of  conscience;  but  elevated  and  puri- 
fied— lam  acting  on  the  eternal  distinctions  of  right  and 
wrong;  but  cleared  up  and  defined — I  am  following  the 
dictates  of  utility  and  social  peace  and  gcneial  happiness; 
13 


98  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVI. 

but  resting  on  the  authority  and  will  of  God.  I  lose  noth- 
ing, therefore,  here:  nay,  I  gain  in  every  point  of  the  enu- 
meration. But  then,  in  addition  to  this,  Christianity  gives 
me  motives  for  obedience,  springs  of  inward  affection  and 
delight,  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  aid  me  in  the  per- 
formance of  duty,  the  mercy  of  God  to  pardon  my  failings, 
the  death  and  passion  of  Jesus  Christ  to  supply  my  want  of 
desert  and  merit.  That  is,  I  have  every  aid  and  succor  in 
the  performance  of  this  course  of  obedience.  The  peculiar 
doctrines  of  the  gospel  relieve  me,  add  consolation  to  me, 
soften  the  yoke  of  obedience,  make  the  path  of  duty  prac- 
ticable and  easy.  I  will,  therefore,  cleave  to  this  holy  doc- 
trine, which  has  formed  so  many  virtuous  fathers,  faithful 
wives,  docile  children,  upright  magistrates,  modest  scholars, 
generous  nobles,  resigned  sufferers.  I  will  cleave  to  this 
holy  doctrine,  which  makes  the  rich  benevolent,  the  exalted 
meek,  the  powerful  considerate,  the  learned  humble,  the 
lowly  contented.  I  will  cleave  to  this  holy  doctrine,  which 
works  by  implanting  every  virtuous  principle  in  the  heart, 
and  which  is  sustained  by  all  the  motives  of  the  stupendous 
Redemption  of  the  Son  and  Spirit  of  God,  and  which  re- 
fers every  human  action  to  an  eternal  judgment.  No;  I 
will  never  renounce  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  tiiis  which 
binds  my  conscience,  restrains  my  appetites,  subdues  my 
passions.  It  is  this  which  has  made  me  all  I  now  am,  little 
as  my  attainments  are.  If  I  did  but  love  holiness  more, 
and  practise  my  duties  more  consistently,  I  should  be  more 
happy.  I  have  peace  within  only  when  I  do  so.  Let  me 
employ  all  the  aids  of  Revelation  to  strengthen  me  in  this 
course,  and  I  shall  have  more  and  more  the  testimony  of  my 
conscience,  in  addition  to  all  the  external  and  internal  evi- 
dences, to  assure  me  that  a  religion  with  such  a  morality 
cannot  but  be  divine.' 


LECTURE   XVII. 


THE  PRE-EMINENT  CHARACTER  AND   CONDUCT 
OF  OUR  LORD. 

Mark  vn.  37. 

./?WiZ  ivere  beyond  mcctstu-e  astonished,  saying,  He  hath  done  all 
thinsrs  well. 

In  reviewing  ihe  constituent  parts  of  Christianity,  it  is  nat- 
ural to  ask  if  any  light  can  be  cast  upon  them  from  the 
character  of  the  founder  of  the  religion?  Did  he  appear 
publicly  before  men?  What  was  his  deportment?  How 
did  he  support  the  claims  which  he  advanced'? 

These  questions  lead  us  to  consider  the  conduct  of  our 
Lord  as  the  Divine  Author  of  the  Christian  faith. 

We  have  already  adverted  more  than  once  to  this  sub- 
ject," but  we  enter  on  it  expressly  now,  as  furnishing  a  pow- 
erful internal  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  Revelation  vvhicli 
bears,  his  name. 

To  consider  it  aright,  we  must  first  distinctly  call  to 
mind  what  manner  of  person  our  Lord  professed  to  be; 
what  were  the  ollices  and  relations  which  he  undertook  to 
sustain. 

(a)  Lect.  vi.  vii.  i.v. 


100  LECTURES  ON  THK  [lECT.  XVII. 

For  Clirist,  be  it  remembered,  was  not  merely  llie  founder 
of  a  religion;  but  he  a|)peared  publicly  as  such  amongst 
the  people  to  whom  the  Scripture  prophecies  had  for  four 
thousand  years  promised  his  advent,  and  at  the  exact  time 
designated  by  those  prophecies. •*  He  claimed,  not  only  to 
be  a  messenger  sent  from  God,  but  to  be  the  Messiah,  the 
Son  of  God  and  Saviour  of  mankind. 

We  may  well  suppose,  then,  that  tiiis  peculiar  character 
involved  qualities  new,  various,  and  exalted.  This  is,  in 
truth,  the  case;  and  a  just  estimate  of  tiie  argument  derived 
from  our  Lord's  conduct,  will  depend  on  a  consideration  of 
the  number  and  difficulty  of  the  relations  he  bore,  and  of 
the  manner  in  which  he  sustained  them. 

What,  then,  were  the  chief  claims  which  he  advanced.'* 
Professing  himself  to  be  the  Messiah,  he  assumed  the  titles 
of  the  Saviour,  the  Redeemer,  the  great  Prophet  of  the 
church,  the  king  of  Israel,  the  appointed  Judge  of  quick 
and  dead.  He  declared  himself  also,  for  the  same  reason, 
to  be  the  Lord  of  David,  the  Mighty  God,  the  Prince  of 
Peace,  Jehovah  our  Righteousnsss.  He  performed  in  these 
characters,  moreover,  miraculous  works,  in  support  of  his 
pretensions — he  healed  the  sick,  raised  the  dead,  expelled 
demons,  suspended  the  laws  of  nature,  and  exercised  in  his 
own  person  a  creative  power.  Again,  he  assumed,  as  a  con- 
sequence of  all  tliis,  to  be  the  teacher  of  truth,  the  light  of 
the  world,  the  expounder  and  vindicator  of  the  moral  law, 
the  authoritative  legislator  of  mankind. 

Notwithstanding  these  exalted  pretensions,  his  office  as 
the  Messiah  involved  the  most  apparently  contradictory 
characteristics.  It  required  him  to  be  the  son  of  man,  the 
servant  and  messenger  of  his  heavenly  Father,  subject  to 
human  infirmities  and  sorrows,  obedient  to  all  the  ceremo- 
nial requirements  and  moral  injunctions  of  the  Mosaic  law — 
a  man  of  sorrou^s  and  acquainted  with  griefs  All  this,  there- 
fore, our  Lord  professed  himself  to  be. 

Still  he  scrupled  not  to  hold  forth  to  his  followers  a  heav- 
enly reward,  the  presence  and  enjoyment  of  God,  a  recom- 

(S)  Led.  ix.  (r)  Jsaiah  liii.  3. 


LECT.    XVll.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  101 

pense  for  their  sufferings  in  his  cause,  which  should  in  this 
life  be  a  hundred  fold  beyond  their  sacrifices,  and  should 
in  another  consist  of  perfect  holiness  and  inconceivable 
bliss. 

Claims  so  numerous  and  so  various,  necessarily  implied 
correspondent  relations  as  arising  out  of  them.  He  had  to 
conduct  himself  as  the  Son  of  God  and  Messiah,  in  all  the 
elevated  and  all  the  lowly  offices  involved  in  those  titles. 
He  had,  at  the  same  time,  to  sustain  all  the  relations  that 
sprung  from  the  peculiar  characters  belonging  to  him  as 
Redeemer,  teacher,  and  rcvvardcr  of  his  disciples. 

But  this  is  not  all:  besides  these  oflices,  our  Lord  assumed 
another  and  distinct  function,  demanding  an  apparently  dif- 
ferent conduct  and  deportment.  He  proposed  himself  as 
the  pattern  and  example  of  every  human  excellence  to  his 
followers.  He  assumed  to  embody  the  moral  precepts  of 
his  religion  in  his  own  life,  and  to"be  himself  all  that  he 
required  of  his  follou's.  He  reduced  all  his  rules  to  the  one 
direction  of  following  his  steps. 

Finally,  he  claimed,  on  the  footing  of  all  these  qualities 
and  testimonies,  to  be  the  founder  of  the  christian  dis- 
pensation, the  Author  and  Finisher  of  the  faith  of  the  gos- 
pel; to  introduce  the  last  and  most  perfect  and  universal 
form  of  revealed  truth;  fulfilling  all  the  j)reparatory  econ- 
omy, and  carrying  out  every  branch  of  religion  to  its  utmost 
extent,  and  with  the  greatest  advantage. 

Such  an  union  of  pretensions  was  never  heard  of  before 
or  since  amongst  men.  Our  Lord  is  beyond  comparison 
the  most  extraordinary  personage  that  ever  advanced  his 
claims  on  earth.  In  the  whole  business  of  man's  redemp- 
tion, wonderful  in  all  its  parts — in  its  beginning,  its  pro- 
gress, its  completion — the  most  wonderful  part  is  the  diver- 
sified names  and  offices  of  our  Lord,  as  compared  with  his 
actual  conduct  in  fulfilling  them. 

By  every  part  of  these  pretensions  he  laid  himself  open 
to  the  scrutiny  of  mankind.  By  every  one  of  them,  he  ex- 
posed a  surface  for  investigation  wide  as  the  various  and 
distinct  duties  springing  from  them.  And  by  the  combina- 
tion of  the  whole,  he  has  furnished  materials  for  the  inter- 


102  LECTUKES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XVH. 

nal  confirmation  of  liis  religion,  which  are  as  new  as  they 
are  inexhaustible,  which  the  study  of  ages  only  incom- 
pletely develops,  and  which  remain  to  the  present  hour  in 
all  their  freshness  and  beauty,  for  the  admiration  of  every 
humble  and  obedient  inquirer. 

Let  us,  then,  consider  the  life  and  conduct  of  our  Lord, 
as  compared  with  his  pretensions. 

In  his  more  peculiar  character  as  mediatou.  In  his  pri- 
vate character  and  personal  excellencies.  In  his  public 
and  exhalted  character  as  the  founder  of  the  cHPasTiAN 
revelation. 

In  the  first,  he  is  the  promised  messiah  of  the  church;  in 
the  second,  he  is  the  model  and  example  of  his  disciples; 
in  the'  third,  he  is  the  divine  author  of  an  universal  relig- 
ion. In  all,  his  deportment  will  be  found  to  furnish  a 
subsidiary  but  irresistible  argument  in  favor  of  Christianity. 

Our  object,  of  course,  in  considering  these  points,  will 
not  be  to  bring  out  the  external  evidences  as  involved  in 
them,  but  the  internal  proofs  arising  from  such  divine  ex- 
cellencies in  Christ's  character  as  they  were  the  occasion 
of  displaying. 

But  here  a  difficulty  presents  itself;  not  arising  from  any, 
intricacy  in  the  subject  to  be  discussed,  but  from  the  incom- 
petency of  man  to  do  justice  to  it:  for  who  can  set  forth 
the  character  of  Christ?  It  demands  much  of  the  sanctity 
of  Jesus  to  comprehend  his  unspeakable  dignity  and  holi- 
ness. Wliat  mind  can  fully  embrace  such  a  theme.''  And 
where  are  the  hearers  who  are  sufficiently  acquainted  with 
the  gospel  history?  Who  has  studied,  as  he  should,  the 
records  of  the  life  of  the  Son  of  God?  Our  argument  can 
only  be  estimated  in  proportion  as  the  copious  references, 
on  which  it  rests,  meet  with  the  well-informed  mind. 

Grant  me,  then,  at  least,  your  attention;  and  may  God 
vouchsafe  to  us  grace  to  study,  with  a  docile  and  impartial 
temper,  the  divine  character  of  his  well-beloved  Son! 

We  are  first  to  point  out  the  conduct  of  our  Lord  in  his 

MORE    peculiar    CHARACTER    AS    MEDIATOR. 

This  will  include  his  deportment  as  the  Son  of  God  and 
Saviour  of  the  world;  as  a  divine  teacher;  as  appearing  in 


LECT.  XVII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  103 

a  state  of  humiliation;   and  promising  a  heavenly  recom- 
pense to  his  disciples. 

1.  Observe,  then,  the  manner  in  which  our  Lord  sustained 
his  high  claims  of  being  the  son  of  god  and  the  saviour 

OF    THE    world. 

Here  we  may  first  remark,  that  they  are  not  put  forth 
ostentatiously,  but  only  as  occasions  called  for  them.  There 
are,  indeed,  explicit  declarations  of  his  exalted  origin.  He 
called  God  his  Father,  in  the  sense  of  making  himself  equal 
with  God.^  He  asserted.  Before  Abraham  ivns,  I  am."  But 
these  and  many  similar  claims  sprang  from  the  circum- 
stances in  which  he  was  placed,  and  were  not  made  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  asserting  his  own  dignity.  It  is  incident- 
ally, rather  than  formally,  that  you  see  divinity  breaking 
forth.  You  hear  him  command  angels  and  devils;  you  see 
him  work  miracles  in  his  own  name;  you  observe  how  he  for- 
gives sins,  assumes  to  be  greater  than  Solomon,  replies  to  the 
thoughts  of  his  hearers,  and  calls  on  men  to  believe  in  and 
honor  him,  even   as  they  believed   and  honored  the  Father. 

Yet  he  enters  into  no  details  on  these  points,  no  explana- 
tions of  the  mode  of  his  union  with  the  Father.  He  leaves 
these  to  be  inferred.  He  speaks  of  them  with  the  ease  and 
naturalness  with  which  one,  born  a  prince,  would  speak  of 
hir  father's  court  and  attendants — without  surprise,  without 
introduction,  without  effort,  without  detailed  description. 
The  invisible  world,  mansions  in  paradise,  legions  of  angels, 
his  own  advent  in  glory  to  judge  the  world,  are  evidently 
matters  with  which  he  is  familiar.  The  astonishing  scene 
at  his  baptism,  the  splendors  of  the  transfiguration,  the 
various  offices  performed  towards  him  by  angels,  the  re- 
peated testimonies  from  his  Father  by  a  voice  from  heaven, 
pass  as  matters  of  course,  and  create  no  extraordinary 
emotion,  in  the  mind  of  the  Son  of  God. 

In  the  mean  time,  every  thing  has  an  evident  reference  to 
his  undertaking,  as  the  promised  Messiah  and  Saviour  of 
mankind.  With  what  dignity  and  wisdom  is  all  made  to 
bear  on  that  one  object.  With  what  majesty,  and  yet  un- 
aftocted  simplicity  and  compassion,*  did  he  open   the   book 

(.1)  John  V.  J7,  18.  (c)  John  viii.  58. 


104  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVII. 

in  ihe  synagogue  of  Nazareth,  and,  having  read  the  pro- 
phetic description  of  his  office,  declare,  This  day  is  this 
Scripture  fulfilled  in  your  earsS  With  what  a  mixture  of 
authority  and  tenderness  did  he,  on  another  occasion,  claim 
that  All  thinf;;s  were  delivered  to  him  of  his  Father;  and  that  no 
man  knew  ivho  the  Son  was,  save  the  Father,  nor  ivho  the  Father 
tvas,  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  should  reveal 
him;  and  then  soften  the  claim  and  adapt  it  to  the  purposes 
of  his  mission,  by  inviting  the  weary  and  heavy  laden  to  come 
unto  him  fcr  resi^^^  With  what  dignity  did  he  call  on  those 
who  applied  to  him,  to  entertain  the  highest  thoughts  of  his 
power,  to  repose  their  faith  in  his  word,  and  to  expect  relief 
in  proportion  to  their  honorable  conceptions  of  his  office 
and  person. 

And  how  remarkably  docs  he  mingle  his  own  name  with 
his  Father's,  his  own  works  with  his  Father's,  his  own  glory 
with  his  Father's,  for  the  purpose  of  elevating  and  fortify- 
ing the  faith  of  his  disciples.  He  that  haih  seen  me,  hath 
seen  the  Father.  Whatsoever  ye  ask  in  my  name,  1  ivill  do  it, 
that  the  Father  may  be  glorified  in  the  Son.  This  sickness  is 
not  unto  death,  but  for  the  glory  of  God,  that  the  Son  of  God 
may  be  glorified  thereby.  And  now,  O  Father,  glorify  thou  me 
with  thine  own  self,  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before 
the  world  ivas.^ 

I  will  not  stop  to  ask  whether  these  points  sufficiently 
prove  that  our  Lord  sustained;  in  a  pre-eminent  manner,  his 
high  claims  of  being  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Saviour  of 
the  world.  You  see  the  refulgence  of  his  Divinity;  you  are 
compelled  to  recognize  his  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only 
begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth.' 

2.  But  consider  our  Lord's  conduct  as  a  teacher  and 

REVEALEU    OF     THE    WILL    OF     GOD,    wllich     formcd     thc     HCXt 

part  of  his  peculiar  character  as  Mediator.     How  admira- 
ble was  both  the  manner  and  thc  matter  of  his  instructions. 
Never   was   a  manner  of   instruction   so  oicNrFiED  and 
FORCIBLE,  and  at  the  same  time  so  mild  and  attractive. 

How  DIGNIFIED    AND    FORCIBLE    aiC     llis    disCOUrSCS.       YoU 

see  the  messenger  fromlicaven,  the  Messiah,  the  maker  and 

(f)  Luke  iv.  21.  (p)  Matt.  xi.  C6— 28. 

(li)  John  xiv.  'J—\.V,  xi.  1;  xvii.  J.  (i)  John  i.  li. 


LECT.     XVII.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  105 

creator  of  all  things.  He  speaks  with  the  native  majesty 
of  the  Son  of  God.  Sentences  full  of  weight,  brief  aphor- 
isms, authoritative  comments  on  the  errors  of  the  Jews, 
clear  and  conclusive  decisions  on  the  import  of  the  law, 
messages  sent,  and  demands  issued  with  a  solemnity  which 
penetrates  the  hearers,  short  lessons  left  on  the  minds  of 
the  crowds  by  whom  he  was  surrounded; — these  were  his 
methods  of  teaching;  all  most  suitable  to  the  character 
which  Christ  bore,  but  utterly  inconsistent  with  every  other. 
Even  his  most  familiar  parables  breathe  an  innate  divinity, 
proceed  on  the  supposition  of  his  union  with  the  Father, 
and  his  glorious  advent  to  judge  the  world.  The  simplest 
images  and  illustrations  are  big  with  hidden  majesty.  He 
is  the  Light  of  the  world;  tlie  living  Vine,  the  Bread  of  God, 
the  hidden  Treasure,  the  Pearl  of  unknown  price,  the  Way, 
the  Truth,  and  the  Life.  Every  idea  inspires  awe  and  rev- 
erence in  the  mind  of  the  astonished  hearer. 

And  yet,  with  all  this  dignity,  how  mild  and  attractive 
is  his  manner  of  teaching!  Lo,  he  takes  up  young  children 
in  his  arms.  See,  he  passes  softly  and  meekly  from  place 
to  place,  not  breaking  the  bruised  reed,  nor  lifting  vp  his  voice 
in  the  streets.^  Hear  him  condescending  to  the  comprehen- 
sions of  the  populace  in  his  most  striking  parables,  where 
the  implied  autiiority  and  majesty  are  still  surrounded  with 
the  utmost  simplicity  and  attractiveness.  Thci  most  obvious 
images  clothe  ideas  the  most  important  and  deep.  What 
exquisite  touches  are  there  in  the  parables  of  the  prodigal 
son,  the  good  Samaritan,  the  ten  virgins,  the  marriage  feast! 
How  intelligible  and  familiar  are  the  illustrations  drawn 
from  the  incidents  of  each  place  and  time!  When  he  gives 
sight  to  the  blind,  he  speaks  of  himself  as  the  light  of  the 
world;  when  little  children  are  brought  unto  him,  he  makes 
them  an  example  of  humility;  when  he  views  the  lilies  of  the 
field,  he  discourses  of  providence;  when  the  produce  of  the 
earth  appears  before  him,  he  bids  his  disciples  to  judge  of 
men  by  their  fruits:  w  hen  he  is  seated  at  a  feast,  he  speaks  of 
the  gospel  entertainments;  when  he  washes  the  disciples' 
feet,  he  discourses  of  purity  of  heart.     Never  was  there  a 

(k)  iVIatt.  xii.  20. 

14 


106  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVII, 

course  of  religious  doctrines  so  familiar,  so  lovely  in  the  man- 
ner of  their  being  conveyed,  as  those  of  our  Lord. 

And  why  should  I  speak  of  the  matter  of  them?  What 
heart  has  not  been  aflected  with  the  grandeur  and  yet 
FACILITY,  the  earnestness  and  yet  wisdom,  apparent  in  the 
matter  of  our  Saviour's  doctrine? 

It  was,  indeed,  in  all  the  substance  of  it,  full  of  grandeur 
of  the  most  majestic,  novel,  and  weighty  communications 
to  man.  Our  divine  Teacher  fills  and  overwhelms  the  mind 
with  the  most  sublime  ideas,  and  pours  out  doctrines,  which, 
to  the  ignorant  and  prejudiced  Jews,  were  most  surprising 
and  strange.  He  unfolds  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven;  he  displays  the  riches  of  the  gospel;  he  assumes 
the  position  of  a  legislator  in  expounding  the  law;  he  repels 
the  pride  and  traditions  of  the  scribes  and  pliarisees  with 
indignation;  he  converses  on  the  subject  of  his  sufferings 
with  prophets,  lawgivers,  and  angels;  he  opens  the  hidden 
meaning  of  the  ancient  predictions;  lie  detects  all  the 
secrets  of  the  human  heart.  All  is  so  peculiar,  so  elevated, 
so  divine,  as  to  leave  an  impression  of  grandeur  and  infmite 
excellency  on  the  mind. 

And  yet  no  doctrine  was  ever  so  intelligible  and  sim- 
ple as  to  its  practical  bearings  and  its  results.  It  was  pre- 
cisely level  to  man's  comprehensions;  it  made  religion  clear, 
interesting,  persuasive.  The  instructions  are  adapted  to 
the  habits  of  thinking  of  the  poor,  are  opened  and  expanded 
for  their  capacities,  separated  from  points  of  difficulty  and 
abstraction,  and  presented  only  in  the  aspect  which  regarded 
their  duty  and  hopes.  The  matter  is  such  as  not  to  gratify, 
but  inform;  not  to  smite  with  surprise,  but  love;  not  to  im- 
pose by  mere  grand(;ur,  but  convey  practical  knowledge 
with  condescension  and  grace. 

Nor  is  the  union  of  urgency  and  zeal,  with  forbearance 
and  wisdom,  less  obvious  in  our  Lord's  instructions:  for  how 
ASSIDUOUS  and  earnest  was  he  in  his  doctrine!  How  sol- 
emn, how  j)cnetrating,  how  imi)ortunutc!  He  was  always 
inculcating  his  divine  lessons.  He  went  about  from  place 
to  place  preaching  incessantly  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom. 
He  was  always  at  work,  always  the  teacher.    He  instructed 


LECT.    XVII.]        EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  107 

men  before,  and  during,  and  after  his  miracles.  He  under- 
took journeys,  and  neglected  ordinary  accommodations,  and 
even  food,  in  order  to  teach  particular  sinners.  It  was  his 
mmt  and  drink  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  him,  and  finish 
his  work}  He  never  yielded  in  his  efforts  whilst  any  hope 
remained,  but  inculcated  again  and  again  the  same  lessons 
under  various  forms — sometimes  accumulating  three  or  four 
parables  to  enforce  a  single  point.  The  zeal  of  his  Father^s 
house  consumed  him,"'  as  it  were:  and  he  was  straitened  till 
he  had  fully  accomplished,  his  ministry. 

And  yet  with  what  forbearance  and  wisdom  was  all  the 
matter  of  his  instructions  tempered!  How  gradually  did  he  in- 
troduce the  more  humiliating  parts  of  his  doctrine!  He  first 
establishes  his  mission  by  his  divine  works,  and  then  follows 
them  by  the  simpler  truths  of  the  gospel.  He  begins  with 
the  call  to  repentance.  He  goes  on  enlarging  the  boundary 
of  his  lessons  with  the  widening  knowledge  of  the  people. 
He  reserves  the  doctrine  of  his  sufferings  till  the  one 
half  of  his  ministry  is  expired."  He  leaves  the  details  and 
consequences  of  his  death  for  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit. 
He  knows  hov/  to  vary  his  matter,  sometimes  communicat- 
ing truth  obliquely,  sometimes  directly;  at  one  time  in  plain 
terms,  at  other  times  covertly,  as  wisdom  pointed  out  and 
occasions  suggested.  He  did  not  put  nciv  ivine  into  old  hot- 
ties,  nor  insert  a  new  cloth  into  an  old  garment, °  by  teaching 
doctrines  for  which  his  disciples  were  not  prepared:  he 
hastened  nothing;  forestalled  nothing;  but  taught  precisely 
those  lessons  which  a  perfect  wisdom  dictated. 

Never  was  there  such  a  teacher  as  Jesus  Christ.  I  speak 
not  now  of  the  miraculous  works  which  attended  his  doc- 
trine; that  is  not  our  topic;  but  of  those  excellencies  in  sus- 
taining his  claims  of  a  divine  instructor,  which  win  the  heart 
— which  give  the  impression,  not  only  of  the  truth  of  the 
religion  which  he  taught,  but  of  that  union  of  grandeur  and 
condescension,  of  zeal  and  wisdom,  of  dignity  and  forbear- 
ance, of  gentleness  and   authority,  of  sublimity  and  plain- 

(1)  John  iv.  11.  (in)  John  xi.  17. 

(n)  Malt.  xvi.  (o)  Matt.  ix.  17 


108  LF.CTIJRF.S    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVII. 

ness,  which  was  most  exactly  aiireeable  to  the  preceding 
parts  of  his  character  as  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Saviour 
of  the  world,  and  which  most  clearly  confirmed  all  the 
direct  proofs  of  his  mission. 

o.  But  it  may  be  asked,  How  did  our  Lord  support  the 
most  difficult  of  all  parts,  the  state  of  humiliation  to 
which  he  likewise  professed  himself  to  be  called?  Nothing 
is  so  rare  as  the  bearing  with  dignity  a  continued  state  of 
sorrow,  woe,  degradation.  Yet  in  nothing  was  our  Lord's 
character  more  admirable,  than  in  the  whole  manner  in 
which  he  sustained  his  lowly  condition  upon  earth.  The 
ineti'able  dignity  and  meekness  of  all  he  did,  were  rendered 
more  conspicuous  by  the  very  meanness  of  his  circum- 
stances, and  even  by  those  sufferings  of  his  life  and  death, 
which  would  have  tarnished  or  obscured  the  virtues  of  any 
one  else.  Mark  the  humble  Saviour  as  he  passes  through 
his  state  of  voluntary  abasement.  Observe  him,  before  his 
public  ministry,  subject  to  his  reputed  parents.  See  him, 
at  his  entrance  on  it,  led  into  the  wilderness,  to  be  tempted 
forty  days  of  the  devil.  Follow  him  afterwards  into  his 
retirements,  his  solitude,  his  mountain-oratories.  He  shuns 
popularity  and  display.  He  dwells  at  the  despised  city  of 
Nazareth,  or  the  litile  fishing  town  of  Capernaum.  He 
refuses  to  be  called  rabbi.  He  commands  those  whom  he 
had  healed  to  conceal  his  mighty  works.  He  rejects  ail 
appearances  of  flattery,  not  willing  even  to  be  called  good, 
when  the  reason  of  the  appellation  was  misconceived.  Thus 
willingly  and  determinately  does  he  descend  into  the  valley 
of  humiliation,  and  proceed  in  it  throughout  his  ministry. 
We  wonder  no  longer  that  the  marks  of  iiis  divine  glory 
were  no  brighter  nor  more  frequent;  all  is  with  him  designed 
abasement  and  concealment.  View  the  man  of  sorrows 
enduring  the  contradiction  of  sinners  against  himselfl  See 
him  the  object  of  contempt  and  scorn!  Hear  him  calumni- 
ated as  having  a  devil  and  being  mad!  Even  his  brethren 
reject  him.  Observe,  he  has  not  where  to  lay  his  head! 
Mark  the  people  eager  to  cast  him  down  from  the  precipice. 
— And  notice  how  he  sustains  all  this  treatment,  how  he 
walks  in  the  lowly  tract  of  depression,  without  murmuring. 


LECT.  XVII.]  EVIDKNCKS    Ot     UliKlSTlANTTY.  1Q9 

without  despondency,  without  degrading  his  divinG  person, 
his  heavenly  design,  his  heavenly  Father,  his  heavenly  home! 
From  this  very  darkness,  burst  forth  from  time  to  time  the 
softest  rays  of  light  and  glory. 

But  who  can  meditate  on  the  last  scene  of  our  Lord's 
sufferings,  without  perceiving  the  calm  dignity  with  which 
he  sustains  them!  He  lays  aside  his  garment,  he  girds  himself 
with  a  towel,  he  ivashes  his  disciples' feet,  ^'  at  the  moment  when 
any  other  sufferer  would  have  been  wrapt  in  thought,  and 
been  working  himself  up  to  an  effort  of  silent  fortitude.^ 
He  proceeds  in  the  mighty  woe.  The  garden  of  Gethsem- 
ane  witnesses  his  agony,  and  the  resignation  which  sus- 
tained it — the  traitor  approaches — the  bar  of  Pilate  follows 
— Calvary  closes  the  tragic  scene. — And  what  meekness 
appears  throughout,  what  composure,  what  faith,  what  self- 
possession,  what  pity  for  his  disciples!  Humiliation  was 
never  seen  so  deep,  nor  supported  with  such  magnanimity. 
Search  all  the  records  of  history,  and  nothing  can  be  found 
so  touching,  nothing  so  elevated,  as  the  manner  in  which 
our  Saviour  conducted  himself  during  his  state  of  abase- 
ment, and  vindicated  this  part  of  the  claims  which  he  made. 

4.  But  it  is  important  to  consider  the  conduct  of  our  Lord 
as  to  the  heavenly  reward  that  he  promised  to  his  dis- 
ciples. We  cannot  better  judge  of  the  bearing  of  any 
one's  real  character  wlio  professes  to  found  a  religion,  than 
by  considering  the  end  which  he  sets  before  his  followers; 
the  reward  he  holds  forth  at  the  close  of  his  undertaking. 
How  tiien  does  the  divine  Jesus  support  his  pretentions  to 
the  distribution  of  final  recompenses.''  What  is  the  sort  of 
happiness  which  he  proposes.'*  What  description  does  he 
present  of  it.'*     How  does  it  stand  related  to  himself.'' 

Now  the  very  nature  of  the  reward  which  our  divine  Lord 
proposes,  is  a  confirmation  of  all  his  claims.  For  the  hap- 
piness which  he  promises,  is  to  flow  exclusively  from  holi- 
ness, purity,  an  immediate  access  to  God,  the  full  attain- 
ment of  that  obedience  which  was  sincerely  though  imper- 
fectly practised  on  earth;  the  completion  of  the  gracious 

(p)  John  xiii.  2,  &c.  (q)  Bowdkr. 


IJIO  bKCTllJlKS    UN    THE  [leCT.    XVII. 

sanctification  of  tlie  Holy  Spirit,  in  all  its  principles,  exer- 
cises, and  eft'ects;  unimpeded  by  a  body  of  sin  and  death, 
and  carried  out  into  all  its  blessed  consequences  and  fruits 
— a  reward  this,  the  whole  character  of  which  is  an  attesta- 
tion of  his  divine  mission. 

And  yet,  in  the  description,  or  rather  hints  which  our 
Lord  gives  of  this  heavenly  state,  he  confines  himself  to  a 
few  brief  points  of  information.  He  gives  no  detail,  he 
gratifies  no  curiosity,  he  tells  us  nothing  of  the  invisible 
worldj  and  the  system  of  things  there  carried  on.  He  just 
opens  enough  to  animate  our  hope  and  stimulate  our  dili- 
gence; and  then  drops  the  curtain,  and  leaves  us  to  enter 
heaven  in  order  to  understand  it. 

But  here  remark — and  it  is  a  point  of  singular  importance, 
and  one  entirely  unheard  of  in  the  case  of  any  other  author 
of  a  religion — this  pure  and  happy  state  in  the  heavenly 
world  is  represented  as  the  being  with  himself,  the  being 
like  Christ,  the  beholding  of  Christ's  glory.     That  is,  our 

DIVINE  MASTER  HIMSELF   CONSTITUTES    HEAVEN his  preSCnCC 

confers  unutterable  joy:  to  be  with  him  and  like  him,  is 
both  holiness  and  happiness.  There  is  an  inexpressible 
majesty  in  this  conception,  which  is  yet  introduced  and 
repeated  with  the  utmost  naturalness  and  ease. — Heaven  is 
the  entering  into  the  felicity,  and  partaking  of  the  blessed- 
ness, of  Jesus  Christ. 

Need  I  say,  then,  that  the  peculiar  character  and  deport- 
ment of  our  Lord  as  Mediator,  which  is  the  first  division  of 
our  argument,  abounds  with  the  most  copious  and  endear- 
ino"  testimonies  to  the  truth  of  all  his  pretensions.'* 

We  proceed  to  consider, 

H.  The  manner  in  which  he  supported  his  claims  as  the 

EXAMPLE    OF    HUMAN  VIRTUE    TO    HIS  DISCIPLES tllis   rCgards 

our  Lord's  private,  as  the  former  referred  to  his  peculiar 
and  official,  character. 

It  might  be  doubted,  indeed,  how  all  tlicpc  high  and 
exalted  particulars  could  stand  with  this  additional  claim 
which  Christ  advanced,  of  being  the  pattern  and  humble 
example  of  his  followers.  Surely  here,  we  might  think, 
our  Saviour  must  fail  to  support  an  assumption  apparently 


LECT.  XVII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  Ill 

SO  contradictory.  And  yet  it  is  here  that  his  character  shines 
forth  most  resplendent.  The  personal  virtues  of  our  Lord, 
the  private  tenor  of  his  life,  his  spotless  purity,  benignity 
and  grace,  as  fully  make  out  his  title  to  be  the  standard  of 
moral  excellency,  as  the  rest  of  his  character  vindicates  his 
other  pretensions.  There  are,  indeed,  as  the  preceding  topics 
demonstrate,  parts  of  his  conduct  in  which  he  is  not  imitable 
by  us — he  appears  often  as  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father, 
as  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  as  one  on  whom  the  annoint- 
ing  Spirit  immeasurably  rested,  to  qualify  him  for  a  wholly 
peculiar  ministry.  But  these  actions  are  readily  distin- 
guished; and  the  far  larger  portion  of  our  Saviour's  conduct 
remains  as  the  attractive  object  of  our  imitation  and  love. 
Some  SEPARATE  VIRTUES  in  our  blessed  Master  shall  first 
be  noticed;  and  then  a  few  remarks  ofi'ered  on  the  union  of 
them  in  his  holy  life. 

1.  Observe,  first,  his  piety  and  devotion  to  his  heav- 
enly FATHER.  Though  hc  had  no  sin  to  confess,  and  no 
corrupt  nature  to  subdue;  yet  how  habitua'^y  fervent  was 
he  in  his  devotions,  acknowledgments,  and  humiliation  be- 
fore his  heavenly  Father.  He  refers  every  thing  to  him. 
He  begins  no  great  act  without  solemn  prayer;  on  more  than 
one  occasion  spending  the  whole  night  in  supplication. 
When  he  multiplied  the  five  loaves  and  the  two  fishes  for 
the  supply  of  the  five  thousand,  he  looked  up  to  heaven 
and  blessed  them.  When  he  approached  the  grave  of  Laz- 
arus, he  first  prayed  solemnly  to  his  Father.  He  taught  his 
disciples  a  prayer,  which  for  brevity,  as  Paley  observes, 
fullness  of  meaning,  suitableness,  and  simplicity,  stands  un- 
rivalled. He  professed  not  to  do  his  own  will,  but  the  will 
of  his  Father;  to  accomplish  which  was  his  meat  and 
drink.  Throughout  his  life,  he  directed  every  act  to 
his  Father's  glory.  Twice  he  purged  the  temple  with  se- 
vere authority,  in  order  to  vindicate  his  Father's  honor.  His 
trust  in  him  was  uniform,  strong,  apparent,  on  every  occa- 
sion. There  was,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  a  continued  com- 
munion going  on  between  his  heavenly  Father  and  the  mind 
of  our  blessed  Lord.  Zeal  for  his  glory  so  filled  him,  that 
he  was  straitened  till  hc  had  accomplished  his  holy  under- 


Hi  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVII. 

taking.  Just  before  his  agony,  he  presents  us  with  a  speci- 
men of  his  intercession  before  the  throne  of  God.  In  his 
last  sufferings,  holy  trust,  resignation,  prayer,  love  to  his 
heavenly  Father,  sustained  him.  Christ's  character  was  a 
devout,  religious,  elevated  character,  supported  by  inward 
principles  of  faith  and  love  to  God,  and  confidence  in  him. 
Christ's  was,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  a  most  pious 
life.  This  was  a  main  ingredient.  This  strikes  the  mind 
at  every  turn.  And  yet  there  was  nothing  of  the  secluded 
and  austere  mixed  with  the  devout  in  him.  It  was  precisely 
a  piety  so  expressed,  and  so  mingled  with  all  his  conduct, 
as  to  furnish  a  perfect  example  to  his  followers. 

Next  to  his  piety  towards  God,  was  his  benevolence  and 
COMPASSION  TOWARDS  MAN.  Nothing  was  more  apparent  in 
our  Lord,  than  genuine  goodwill,  kindness,  tenderness  of 
heart.  His  life  was  not  one  of  strict  justice  merely,  but  of 
overflowing  benignity ."■  He  went  about  to  bless  and  con- 
sole this  sorrowing  world.  His  miracles  were  almost  all 
acts  of  kindnpss  and  beneficence — healing  all  manner  of 
disease,  casting  out  devils,  restoring  sight  to  the  blind,  and 
even  raising  again  the  dead.  Instead  of  displaying  the  por- 
tentous powers  by  which  the  mission  of  Moses  was  made  to 
triumph  over  the  rebellious  Pharaoh;  in  the  benevolent  Jesus 
all  was  characteristic  of  the  peace  and  goodwill  which  he 
came  to  proclaim.^  He  was  our  brother,  one  like  unto  our- 
selves, sin  only  excepted.  When  he  saw  an  amiable  young 
man,  then  he  loved  him.  When  he  beheld  the  multitude 
fainting,  he  had  compassion  on  them,  because  they  were 
scattered  and  were  as  sheep  that  had  no  shepherd.  As 
he  approached  the  city  of  Nain,  Behold  a  dead  man 
was  carried  out,  the  only  son  of  his  mother,  and  she  teas 
a  widow:  and  Jesiis,  when  he  saio  her,  had  compassion  on  her, 
and  said  unto  her,''  Weep  not.  And  he  came  and  touched 
the   bier,  [and  they  that  bore   him   stood   stdl,)   and  he  said, 

(r)  Abp.  Ncwcombe. 

(s)  Dotldridge  observes,  thai  our  Lord  wrought  more  bcneticent  miracles  m  one 
afiemoon,  tlian  any  of  the  ancient  prophets  in  the  course  of  a  whole  life.  f»ee 
Matt.  ix.  33. 

(t)  At  once,  before  he  had  begun  the  intended  restoration. 


LECT.    XVII.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  113 

Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee,  arise.  And  he  that  teas  dead 
sat  up  and  began  to  speak,  and  he  delivered  him  to  his  moth- 
er.^ Was  ever  such  genuine,  deeply-seated  benevolence 
before  seen!  The  wiiolc  narrative  teems  with  compas- 
sion. Thus,  also,  when  he  was  approaching  the  ungrate- 
ful city  of  Jerusalem,  whose  inhabitants  were  just  about  to 
imbue  their  hands  in  his  blood,  how  did  he  weep  over  it,  as 
winding  round  the  heights  of  the  Mount  of  Olives,  it  burst 
upon  his  view: ''  his  own  sufferings  forgotten,  the  shouts  of 
the  applauding  multitude  unheard,  he  is  absorbed  in  the 
miseries  about  to  fall  on  the  people  for  their  sins!  Again, 
who  can  fully  conceive  of  the  compassion  which  led  him, 
when  expiring  in  death,  to  provide  a  refuge  for  his  mother, 
when  a  sword  was  going  through  her  very  heart,  as  siie  be- 
held her  son  in  the  agonies  of  the  crucifixion! 

Time  forbids  me  to  point  out  how'  this  benevolence  of 
Christ  flowed  forth  in  the  forgiveness,  of •>  injuries — nor  is 
it  needful.  Not  a  single  word  of  resentment,  nor  any  ex- 
pression of  personal  displeasure,  ever  came  out  of  his  mouth. 
He  was  daily  and  hourly  returning  good  for  evil,  till,  on  the 
cross,  he  prayed  for  the  very  wretches  who  were  driving  the 
nails  into  his  hands  and  feet — Father,  forgive  them,  thcij  know 
not  what  they  do.'''' 

Nor  is  it  necessary  to  dwell  on  that  jmeekness  and  low- 
liness OF  spiHiT  which  so  remarkably  appeared  in  our 
Lord,  but  which  we  have  just  noticed  in  describing  his 
conduct  in  his  state  of  humiliation.  In  fact,  so  meek 
was  Jesus,  and  so  confessedly  was  this  the  whole  impress 
ofhis  character,  that  he  could  call  on  his  disciples  to  imitate 
him 'in  this  respect,  without  rendering  his  sincerity  for  a 
moment  questionable.  Learn  of  me,  for  1  am  meek  and 
lowly  of  heart.""  The  soft  and  gentle  spirit  of  Christ  is  ever 
apparent.  As  a  lamb  dumb  before  his  shearers,  so  opened  he 
not  his  viouth.y  Instead  of  the  ambition,  the  susceptibility 
of  affronts,  the  self-confidence,  the  personal    importance, 

(u)  Lulcc  vii. 

(v)  Mr.  Jowett  mentions  this  touching  circumstance  in  his  Researches. 

(w)  Luke  xxiii.  34. 

(x)  Mall  xi.  29.— Bowdler. 

(y)  Isaiah  liii.  7. 

15 


114  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVII. 

whicli  appeared  in  other  moral  teachers,  our  Lord  was 
uniformly  gentle  and  lowly.  It  is  impossible  even  for  the 
unbeliever  to  deny,  and  indeed  he  does  not  venture  to  deny, 
the  meekness  and  lowliness  of  Christ's  character. 

Then  consider  his  sui'ekiokity  to  the  world — to  the 
passions,  objects,  opinions,  pleasures,  indulgences,  love  of 
ease;  regard  to  fame,  to  riches,  to  display,  to  influence,  to 
praise — which  the  Scripture  includes  under  that  compre- 
hensive term,  and  which  have  ever  ensnared,  under  one 
form  or  other,  all  merely  human  teachers.  In  our  Saviour 
we  see  nothing  of  a  worldly  spirit: — there  was  no  courting 
of  the  great,  no  fawning  over  the  persons  of  the  noble,  no 
haunting  the  palaces  of  kings,  no  deference  to  the  authority 
of  powerful  and  wicked  men,  no  debates  about  human  politics 
and  temporal  interests,  no  deshe  after  worldly  distinction  or 
dominion,  no  leaning  to  an  outward  splendor  and  an  external 
Messiahship,  such  as  the  Jews  desired  and  feigned.  On  the 
contrary,  never  was  there  so  unworldly  a  character,  never 
such  disinterestedness,  never  such  superiority  to  all  the 
glare  and  bustle  and  attraction  of  die  world  and  worldly 
glory.  He  estimated  things  as  they  really  were,  and  acted 
simply  and  invariably  upon  that  estimate.  He  was  not  of 
the  world;  he  was  of  another  spirit,  engaged  in  other  pur- 
suits, touciied  by  other  interests,  bent  on  liigh  and  nobler 
ends.  And  in  no  respect  is  his  example  more  perfect  in 
itself,  and  more  necessary  to  us,  than  in  his  overcoming  of 
the  icorld.'- 

Then  mark  the  strict  temperance  and  command  of  the 
INFERIOR  Ai'PETiTKs  whicli  OUT  Lord  exercised — a  rare  and 
difficult  attainment!  But  what  self-denial,  what  abstinence 
from  indulgence,  what  freedom  from  every  thing  like  the 
stain  of  excess,  appeared  in  Christ!  His  temperance  how 
pure,  how  elevated,  how  vigilant,  how  uniform,  how  natu- 
ral! He  wrought  no  miracle  for  the  supply  of  his  own  wants 
— you  hear  of  none  of  these  wants.  He  pities  the  .multi- 
tude, indeed,  and  feeds  them  miraculously;  but  for  himself, 
he  has  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  Whilst  he  sits  instruct- 
ing the  Samaritan  woman,  he  accounts  that  he  has  meat  to 

(z)  John  .xvi.  33. 


LECT.  XVII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  115 

eat  which  his  disciples  knew  not  of;  whilst,  as  tothem,  they  are 
compelled  to  go  into  the  city  to  purchase  food.'' 

Join  to  these  virtues,  the  fortitude  and  constancy 
which  appeared  in  our  Redeemer — that  quality  of  mind 
which  is  compounded  of  courage,  patience  and  persever- 
ance; which  knows  not  how  to  yield  in  a  great  undertaking; 
which  is  daunted  by  no  opposition,  and  faints  under  no 
discouragement;  which  endures  contradiction,  violence, 
injustice,  oppression.  With  what  fortitude  does  our  Lord 
bear  tlie  incessant  hostility  and  perverseness  of  the  Jewsl 
With  what  constancy  and  boldness  does  he  arraign  the 
vices  and  hypocrisy  and  cruelties  of  the  scribes  and  pliar- 
isees!  When  did  he  betray  any  symptoms  of  cowardice  or 
the  fear  of  man.^  AVhen  did  he  fly  in  dejection  or  irresolu- 
tion? No:  he  fainted  not,  neither  loas  discouraged,  till  he  had 
set  judgment  in  the  earths 

The  pkudence  and  discretion  which  ever  adorned  our 
divine  Master  must  not  be  overlooked.  These  made  a  re- 
markable, though  not  a  disproportionate,  part  of  his  charac- 
ter. He  never  invited  attack  by  imprudence,  nor  provoked 
hostility  by  intemperate  rashness.  When  no  good  could  be 
effected  in  one  spot,  he  withdrew  to  another.  The  ques- 
tions dictated  by  curiosity  or  craft,  he  repelled  by  wisdom; 
proposing  other  questions,  or  inculcating  a  general  doc- 
trine, or  softening  reproof,  by  the  veil  of  a  parable.  The 
forethought,  the  consideration  of  circumstances,  the  adapt- 
ation of  means  to  the  desired  end,  the  disposition  of  the 
several  parts  of  his  doctrine  to  their  proper  purposes  and 
to  the  class  of  his  auditory,  his  determination  under  a  choice 
of  ditTiculties,  his  address  in  defending  his  disciples  when 
accused,  his  apologies  before  the  bigoted  Jews,  marked  our 
Lord's  wisdom.  The  human  heart  lay  open  before  him:  dif- 
ficult questions  and  sudden  turns  only  served  to  display  his 
consummate  prudence.  Yes,  he  did  all  things  well:  '^  his  pru- 
dence was  as  conspicuous  in  the  manner,  as  his  benevo- 
lence in  the  execution,  of  his  designs. 

2.  But  I  must  not  detain  you  longer  on  the  separate 
graces  of  our  Saviour's  personal  character,  much  as  they 

(n)  .Toliii  iv.  8.  (b)  Isaiah  xlii.  1.  (c)  Mark  vii.  37. 


IIG  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XVII. 

might  be  extended.  I  must  proceed  to  offer  a  iew  remarks 
on  the  UNION  of  them  in  his  most  holy  life;  for  he  combined 
all  the  various  branches  of  moral  excellency,  and  exhibited 
in  equal  perfection  tlie  graces  and  virtues  the  most  oppo- 
site to  each  other,  without  the  proximate  failings,  or  any 
decay  in  vigor  and  consistency.  And  in  this  respect  our 
Lord  surpassed  all  human  examples  of  virtue.  It  is  a  com- 
mon remark,  that  a  principle  of  opposition,  and  as  it  were 
compensation,  runs  through  the  works  of  the  Almighty. 
The  stronger  virtues  are  seldom  found  without  an  alliance  of 
austerity,  nor  the  softer  without  weakness  and  feebleness.'' 
Still  more  uncommon  is  it  to  find  the  stronger  and  softer 
qualities  in  due  proportion.  Whilst  no  example  is  to  be 
found,  except  in  the  blessed  Jesus,  of  all  these  being,  not 
only  united,  but  carried  to  the  utmost  height  and  preserved 
in  one  uniform  tenor.     Yet  such  was  the  case  in  our  Lord. 

His  virtues  were  unalloyed  with  the  kindred  failings. 
His  temperance  was  unaccompanied  with  severity,  his  for- 
titude was  without  rashness,  his  constancy  without  obsti- 
nacy, his  self  denial  u'ithout  moroseness,  his  devotion  and 
piety  without  indifierencc  to  the  affairs  of  life.  And  so, 
on  the  other  hand,  his  benevolence  never  sunk  into  weak- 
ness, his  humility  into  fear  of  man,  his  love  of  retirement 
into  inactivity,  his  tenderness  into  compliance  with  sin. 

Not  only  so;  the  opposite,  and  to  us  apparently  con- 
tradictory, GRACES  VVERE  FOUND  IN  HIM  IN  EQUAL  PRO- 
PORTION. His  elevation  of  mind,  and  sublimity  in  the  con- 
ception of  divine  things,  were  connected  with  the  utmost 
facility  and  simplicity.  His  superiority  to  the  world,  and 
spirituality  of  affection,  were  equalled  by  his  affability  and 
freedom  in  conversing,  with  mankind.  His  temperance  and 
fortitude  were  adorned  with  the  opposite  graces  of  meek- 
ness and  forbearance;  his  love  and  benignity  with  courage 
and  decision  of  character:  his  compassion  for  sinners  with 
the  most  pointed  rebukes  of  the  incorrigible  and  hypocrit- 
ical. His  condescension  in  consorting  with  publicans  and 
sinners,  was  united  with  the  utmost  purity  and  dignity;  his 

(d)  Howfller. 


LECT.     XVII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  117 

incessant  diligence  with  suavity;  his  zeal  in  the  service  of 
God,  and  in  prosecuting  his  mission,  with  prudence  and 
discretion.  The  active  were  thus  allied  with  the  contem- 
plative virtues,  the  strong  with  the  tender,  the  heroical  with 
the  retired.  Each  virtue  was  free  from  the  proximate  de- 
fect, and  accompanied  with  the  opposite  excellency. 

Further  than  this,  all  was  cauried  to  the  utmost  height, 
AND  continued  IN  ONE  EVEN  TENOR.  Christ  had  uniform- 
ity and  consistency  of  virtue,  in  the  strictest  sense;  he  had 
strength  of  character.  Power  of  every  kind  is  less  exhibit- 
ed by  violent  eflbrts  of  short  duration,  than  by  a  steady, 
unyielding  agency  and  progression.''  It  was  not  at  one 
time,  but  at  every  time;  not  in  one  situation,  but  in  every 
kind  of  situation;  not  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry 
merely,  but  tiuoughout  it;  not  in  one  or  two  respects,  but 
in  all,  that  the  virtues  of  Christ  were  manifested.  And  this 
at  the  greatest  hcigiit  of  which  the  human  nature  is  suscep- 
tible, and  which  the  law  of  God  requires.  There  is  no  Haw, 
no  stain  in  our  Lord's  character;  not  a  single  defect,  much 
less  any  crime.  It  was  a  perfect  model  for  our  imitation. 
Christ  had  never  occasion  to  retract  any  statement,  to  qualify 
any  expression,  to  undo  any  thing  he  ever  said  or  did.^  No 
omission,  no  slip,  no  error,  no  misapprehension,  no  gap  or 
interruption  in  the  circle  of  human  excellencies,  appeared 
in  our  blessed  Saviour. 

The  result  was,  that  there  was  a  peculiar  harmony,  love- 
liness, and  moral  symmetry  in  our  Saviour's  personal  char- 
acter; that  beauty  of  holiness  which  arises  from  the  combi- 
nation and  just  proportion  of  all  the  various  elements  of 
which  it  is  composed.  Every  thing  was  of  a  piece;  every 
thing  was  most  becoming;  every  thing  was  as  it  should  be. 

And  this  completes  the  picture.  This  shows  tliat  we 
have  in  our  Lord  the  perfect  model  of  every  virtue  for  his 
disciples,  both  as  it  regards  the  se|)arate  graces  of  his  char- 
acter, and  the  union  and  combination  of  them  in  all  their 
proportions,  strength,  and  consistency. 

(c)  Bowdler. 

(f )  St.  Paul  had  to  acknowledge,  /  icisl  not,  brethren,  tliat  it  was  the  high  priest: 
—Acts  xxiii.  5.— bul  never  thus  the  holy  Jesus. 


118  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.     XVII. 

But  this  leads  us  to  consider  the  conduct  and  deportment 
of  Christ,  as  compared  with  liis  pretensions. 

III.     In    his    purmc    and    exalted  character  as    the 

FOUNDER    OF    THE    CHRISTJAN    RELICION. 

For  all  these  separate  parts  of  tiie  life  of  Christ  were  sub- 
servient to  one  great  purpose,  the  founding  of  the  gospel 
Revelation;  and  each  part  prepared  and  qualified  him  for 
that  great  undertaking. 

In  order,  then,  to  catch  a  view  of  the  excellencies  of  this 
result,  we  may  notice  the  public  character  of  Christ,  in  its 
suitableness  to  man;  in  its  surprising  novelty  and  sublim- 
ity; in  its  correspondence  with  the  doctrines  and  precepts  of 
his  religion;  and  in  the  united  impression  and  effect  of  the 
whole; — all  heightened  by  the  artless  manner  in  which  the 
narration  is  written. 

1 .  To  begin  with  the  topics  which  we  have  just  been 
considering,  it  is  impossible  not  to  observe  the  suitable- 
ness TO  the  necessities  of  HAN  which  appears  in  thd 
founder  of  Christianity  ihus  becoming  our  example.  Man  is 
led  by  example  rather  than  by  precept.  lie  needed  a  Saviour, 
not  oidy  to  rescue  him  from  guilt  and  death  by  his  merits 
and  o-race,  but  to  render  virtue  lovely  and  practicable,  by 
his  human  and  personal  excellencies.  In  the  life  of  Christ, 
morality  is  set  forth  in  action;  it  is  embodied,  it  is  made 
visible  to  the  mortal  eye,  and  addressed' to  the  mortal  heart, 
in  the  most  attractive  and  engaging   form. 

And  how  exactly  was  the-  class  of  cicaracter  and  sta- 
tion which  Christ  occupied,  adapted  to  our  case!  He  might 
have  chosen  any  other,  and  been  a  perfect  model  of  virtue: 
he  might  have  appeared — except  perhaps  as  his  charac- 
ter as  the  Saviour  of  the  world  was  concerned — as  a  prince, 
a  noble,  a  teacher  of  human  or  divine  science;  but  such  a 
life  would  not  have  bet;n  so  easily  imitable  by  the  great 
mass  of  mankind.  Our  Lord,  therefore,  became  like  one  of 
ourselves;  his  life  was  spent  in  common  affairs  and  duties. 
His  is  a  most  holy,  but  an  ordinary,  familiar,  every-day  life, 
passed  in  hmnble  scenes  and  usual  occurences.*'  This  was 
exactly  what  proud,  vain-gl(»rious  man  needed. 

(f )  "The  imiiatlon  of  llic  life  of  Jesus  is  a  duty  of  thai  excellency  and  perfeclioii, 
that  we  are  blessed  in  it  by  its  easiness,  compliance,  and  proportion  to  us.     For 


LECT.  XVII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  119 

Then  our  Lord's  was  a  suffering  character,  and  so  yet 
further  adapted  to  be  our  pattern  in  a  suffering  world.  Any 
other  life  might  have  been  as  pure,  but  it  could  not  have 
been  so  consolatory.  As  a  sufferer,  his  example  is  more 
frequently  applicable,  more  deeply  meditated  on,  more  pre- 
cisely suited  to  the  condition  and  alliictions  of  his  follow- 
ers. The  patient,  enduring  virtues  are  most  conspicus  in 
him,  as  they  are  most  needed  by  us. 

It  was  also  a  calm,  composed  character.  There  was  a 
tranquillity,  a  retirement,  a  freedom  from  violent  emotions, 
an  abstinence  from  excitement  and  disturbance  throughout 
it.  His  emotions  were  chiefly  those  of  benevolence,  com- 
passion, abhorrence  of  sin.  Thi3se  overpowered,  on  all  oc- 
casions, the  inferior  passions;  and  were  most  directly  in 
contrast  with  any  charge  of  insincerity  or  enthusiasm,  which 
his  enemies  might  otiiervvise  have  imputed  to  him.  Our 
Lord  is  precisely  what  he  should  be; — he  appeared,  and  did, 
and  acted,  and  spake,  in  every  respect  as  the  founder  of 
such  a  religion  as  Ciu-istianity  required. 

2.  Remark  next  the  surprising  novelty  and  sublimity 
of  our  Saviour's  deportment  and  undertaking.  His  great 
purpose  was  entirely  new  and  unheard  of  at  the  time  he 
appeared  upon  earth;  it  sprung  completely  from  his  own 
divine  goodwill,  and  was  independent,  and  indeed  contrary, 
to  tiie  temper  of  the  age  and  the  outward  condition  in 
which  he  appeared.  I  do  not  like  the  term  original,^  as 
applied  to  our  Lord's  character,  because  we  commonly 
mean  by  that  word  the  efforts  of  unassisted  genius,  in  the 
invention  or  execution  of  works  of  science  or  art. 

But  his  whole  project  and  manner  of  acting  were  novel; 
were  in  no  respect  the  product  of  external  circumstances; 
were  not  according  to  the  taste  of  tiie  age,  and  the  sym- 
pathies of  his  countrymen.  We  know  sufficiently  of  the 
spirit  of  his  contemporaries,  of  the  traditions,  the  disorders, 
the  expectations  of  a  temporal  deliverer,  the   contempt  for 

though  he  was  without  sin,  yet  the  instances  of  his  piety  were  the  actions  of  a  very 
holy,  but  ordinary  life,  without  atlrigbimcnt  of  precedent  or  prodigious  acts,  greater 
than  the  imitation  of  man— sweet  and  humane  and  gentle." — Bishop  J.  Taylor. 

(g)  Paley,  and  even  Bishop  Bird  Sumner. 


120  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT,    XVII. 

the  Heathen  and  Samaritans,  and  even  for  Publicans  and 
Nazarenes,  which  prevailed.  We  see  in  the  disciples  this 
impression  of  the  age.  Our  Lord  rises  infinitely  above  it; 
his  character  is  not  created  by  circumstances;  he  forms  his 
own  project;  he  conceives  the  new  and  vast  design  of  an 
universal  religion:  he  acts  upon  that  design,  though  not  a 
single  mind  can  sympathize  with  him;  he  possesses  his  soul 
in  patience,  in  the  calm  persuasion  of  the  success  of  his 
undertaking:  and  yet  every  a[)poariince  was  against  it — 
the  prejudices  of  the  Jews,  the  notions  of  a  temporal  Mes- 
siah, the  powers  and  authorities  and  intellectual  habits  of 
the  whole  world.  And  there  was  nothing  in  our  Saviour's 
birth,  connexions,  education,  to  raise  him  abov€  these  things. 
Yet  not  a  word  escapes  him  implying  a  doubt  of  the  ulti- 
mate triumphs  of  his  religion.  In  all  his  teaching  and  life 
you  see  a  consciousness,  which  never  forsakes  him,  of  a 
relation  to  the  whole  human  race.^  What  a  vast  and  noble 
design;  what  superiority  and  grandeur  of  thought;  what 
self-possession  and  calmness  in  the  pursuit;  what  expanse  of 
charity;  what  height  of  benevolence!  And  yet  his  own  death 
was  to  intervene: — he  perceives,  he  foretells,  he  calmly  de- 
scribes, the  acts  of  violence  which  were  about  apparently  to 
cut  short  all  his  projects.  What  words  can  convey  the  impres- 
sion of  the  character  of  the  divine  founder  of  Christianity 
when  you  view  him  as  inspired  and  filled,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, with  this  mighty  plan,  the  salvation  of  mankind! 
3.  Remark,  again,  how  the  different  parts  of  our  Lord's 
character,  springing  from  his  two-fold  nature,  exactly  cor- 
respond with  his  undertaking,  make  it  natural,  and  join  on 
upon  all  the  doctrinf,?!  and  precf.pts  of  Christianity  which 
we  considered  in  former  Lectures.'  We  are  no  longer 
astonished  at  the  enterprise  of  founding  an  universal  relig- 
ion, when  we  recollect  that  here  is  an  incarnate  Deity,  the 
only  begotten  of  the  Father,  the  Lord  mighty  to  save,  the 
Eternal  Word,  come  on  an  errand  of  grace.  And  when  we 
turn  to  the  human  parts  of  his  character,  and  consider  them 
as  the  matter  of  his  obedience,  the  ground  of  his  merits, 

(h)  Dr.  Channing.  (i)  Led.  xv.  and  .\vj. 


LECT.   XVII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRTSTIANITr.  121 

ihc  very  sacrifice  which  he  came  to  offer,  the  case  is  still 
further  unfijlded.  The  mystery,  indeed,  of  tlie  union  of 
the  divine  with  the  human  nature  remains  unexplained;  but 
the  fact  of  it  is  clearly  laid  down  as  the  foundation  of  iiis 
mission,  many  of  the  ends  of  which  it  develops;  whilst  the 
combination  of  the  qualities  arisinf^,  without  confusion, 
from  the  two  natures,  constitutes,  the  peculiarity  of  our 
Lord's  character  as  the  founder  of  our  faith.  His  divine 
and  human  nature  correspond  to  the  two  classes  of  truths 
— the  doctrines  and  precepts  which  compose  his   religion. 

His  divine  nature  and  mediatorial  office,  together  with 
the  state  of  humiliation  which  is  connected  with  them,  pre- 
cisely agree  with  tlie  doctrines  of  the  fall  and  guilt  of 
man,  which  rendered  such  a  scheme  of  redemption  needful 
and  appropriate;  that  is,  they  precisely  expound  the  truths 
which  distinguish  Revelation,  and  are,  indeed,  the  facts  on 
which  those  truths  rest.  The  superhuman  parts  of  Christ's 
life  confirm  all  the  doctrines  dependent  on  his  divinity — as 
the  efilcacy  of  his  atonement,  the  merit  of  his  sacrifice,  the 
prevalence  of  his  intercession.  Without  such  parts,  the 
doctrines  would  be  less  intelligible,  less  apparent,  less  con- 
solatory; with  them,  all  is  congruous.  If  Jesus  Christ  were 
not  the  Eternal  Word,  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  in 
short,  the  divine  perfections  enibodied  in  human  nature — 
the  system  of  redemption  would  be  incomplete.  And  if 
the  system  of  redemption  were  other  than  it  is,  the  charac- 
ter of  Christ  would  be   unaccountable   and   inappropriate. 

And  then  how  exactly  do  the  human  virtues  of  the  lovely 
Saviour  correspond  with,  or  rather  embody  and  realize,  all 
the  PRECEPTS  of  the  gospel:  his  life  is  the  precepts  harmo- 
nized, exhibited.  If  man  is  ever  to  be  won  to  obedience, 
it  must  be  by  the  force  of  such  an  example  presented  in  so 
divine  a  person,  and   sustained  by  such   exhuberant  grace. 

4.  Next  remark  the  i.mphlssiox  and  effect  of  the 
WHOLE  PUBLIC  CMARACTEK  of  Clirist — how  thc  Contempla- 
tions of  the  separate  excellencies  of  his  character  are 
heightened  when  the  mind  proceeds  to  embrace  the  \a  hole. 
The  high  and  lofty  parts  are  so  united  with  the  lowly  and 
attractive;  the  divine  (jualitics  of  our  Lord  with  his  human; 
10 


122  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XVII. 

what  he  did  as  the  Son  of  God,  with  what  he  suirercd  as 
the  Son  of  man;  the  claims  of  equality  with  the  Father, 
with  his  voluntary  subjection  to  him;  the  example  he  pro- 
posed to  his  followers,  with  the  salvation  which  he  wrought 
out  for  them;  his  deportment  as  our  pattern,  with  his  exal- 
ted conduct  as  the  founder  of  the  Christian  Revelation;  all 
is  so  sublime,  and  yet  so  condescending;  so  divine,  and  yet 
so  human;  so  infinitely  above  us,  and  yet  so  familiarly 
known,  and  so  entirely  level  to  our  feelings;  the  mysterious 
parts  are  so  softened  down  by  the  condescending  ones;  the 
authority  and  majesty  are  so  blended  with  the  compassion 
and  kindness  of  Jesus,  as  to  render  the  impression  of  the 
whole  character  beyond  measure  deep  and  penetrating. 
AVe  feci  that  never  did  such  a  personage  appear  before  or 
since.  We  feel  that  it  is  Deity  incarnate;  God  stooping  to 
man;  the  divine  perfections  nmde  visible  to  mortal  eye;  the 
distance  between  the  holy  God  and  guilty  sinners  annihi- 
lated; salvation,  joy,  duty,  motive,  hope,  resignation — all  the 
Christian  religion — concluded  and  comprehended  in  the 
brief  but  inexhaustible  excellencies  of  the  character  of  its 
founder. 

5.  This  conviction  is  strengthened  by  observing,  in  the 
last  place,  the  manner  in  which  the  character  of  our 
LOUD  IS  GIVEN  BY  THE  EVANGELISTS.  For  the  narrative,  as 
we  have  before  had  the  occasion  to  notice  at  some  length,  J 
is  the  most  inartificial  ever  seen.  There  is  no  panegyric,  no 
putting  of  things  together,  no  drawing  of  a  character,  no 
apologies  nor  explanations.  The  evangelists  merely  relate 
faithfully  what  tiiey  severally  remembered  of  one  individual; 
but  this  individual  was  so  extraordinary  a  personage,  that 
in  recording  his  life,  they  present  a  picture  such  as  the 
world  never  before  saw.  The  acct)unt,  however,  only  fur- 
nishes the  materials  from  whicli  we  may  study,  as  we  can, 
our  Lord's  several  excellencies.  The  Evangelists  leave  us 
to  do  this.  They  do  not  even  arrange  the  different  inci- 
dents in  the  order  ol'  time.  Thus  the  ?ninds  of  men  are 
set  at  work;  and  the  true  impression  and  bearing  of  the 

(_i)  Lecture  vi.,  ou  CrcdiUiliiy. 


LECT.    XVII.]         EVIDENCES     OF     CHRISTIANITY.  123 

history  is  llie  result  of  their  own  conclusions,  from  the  inci- 
dents thrown  together  in  naked  and  unadorned  simplicity. 

The  very  circumstance,  indeed,  of  such  a  portrait  being 
drawn  by  such  writers,  is  an  independent  proof  of  the 
divine  origin  of  the  gospels.  It  could  never  have  entered 
the  mind  of  man.  We  know  what  efforts  writers  of  the 
greatest  genius  have  made  in  different  ages  to  describe  a 
perfect  character.  Poets,  historians,  philosophers,  have 
labored  the  point  to  the  utmost.  They  have  succeeded 
but  imperfectly.  Their  entirely  virtuous  man  has  neither 
been  amiable  nor  consistent  nor  imitable.  Some  gross  de- 
fects have  marked  their  first  conceptions  of  the  subject. 
But,  behold!  four  unlettered  and  simple  persons,  give  sepa- 
rate narratives  of  the  life  of  their  Master,  and  accomplish 
unwittingly  what  men  in  all  ages  and  countries  have  aimed 
at  and  failed.'^  The  gospels  appear.  The  writers  make 
no  comments  on  the  history  they  give;  and  they  leave  a 
character,  without  seeming  to  think  of  it,  which  is  found 
to  be  new,  to  be  sucli  as  the  mind  of  man  could  never  have 
conceivedj  and  yet,  at  tiie  same  time,  to  be  so  lovely,  so 
imitable,  so  dignified,  so  sublime,  as  to  comprise,  by  uni- 
versal consent,  all  the  excellencies  and  perfections  of  which 
the  human  nature  is  susceptible,  in  a  form  the  most  engag- 
ing, tender,  and  elevated. 

But  we  pause — and  draw  our  argument  to  a  close.  We 
have  taken  a  view  of  the  peculiar  character  of  our  Lord  as 
Mediator;  of  his  private  deportment  as  our  example;  and 
of  his  public  and  more  elevated  conduct  as  the  founder  of 
the  Christian  religion.  The  mind  is  lost  in  striving  to  col- 
lect the  several  parts. 

We  began  with  the  various  claims  preferred  by  our  Lord. 
We  were  startled  at  the  variety  and  difficulty  of  them.  We 
yet  found,  as  we  proceeded,  every  one  established  in  the 
most  ample  and  satisfactory  manner.  The  impression  of 
reverence  increased  as  we  reviewed  his  conduct  as  the  Son 
of  God  and  Saviour  of  the  world,  as  the  Teacher  of  man- 
kin^l,  as  a  Man  of  sorrows,  and  the  Rewarder  of  his  disci- 

(k)  Scott. 


124  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVII. 

pies.  We  were  yet  more  afTectcd,  as  we  considered  the 
separate  as  well  as  combined  excellencies  of  our  Lord's 
personal  conduct.  When  from  this  we  proceeded  to  notice 
the  public  bearing  of  his  life  and  ministry  as  the  founder  of 
our  religion,  we  were  only  the  more  filled  with  astonish- 
ment at  the  majesty  and  sublimity  of  his  character.  The 
attempt  to  do  justice  to  any  portion  of  it  is  fruitless-  It  is 
difiicult  even  to  touch  on  the  principal  features.  Enough, 
however,  has  been  said  to  enable  us  to  estimate  the  argu- 
ment which  it  supplies  in  confirmation  of  our  faith  and  love. 

This  argument,  then,  it  will  be  found,  springs  from  a  fair 
PRESUMPTION  upon  the  first  statement  of  the  case;  rises  yet 
higher  when  that-case  is  contrasted  with  every  similar  pre- 
tension; proceeds  upwards  to  a  moral  demonstration  wlien 
the  OTHER  branches  or  the  evidknces  are  taken  into 
account;  and  ceases  not  its  course  till  it  bears  away  the 
HEART  of  every  competent  and  serious  inquirer. 

1.  For  what  is  the  fair  presumption  on  the  very 
STATEMENT  OF  THE  CASE,  after  reviewing  such  a  character 
as  that  of  the  founder  of  the  Cliristian  religion?  The  life 
and  spirit  of  the  author  of  any  religious  system,  when  truly 
known,  go  far  to  determine  the  truth  of  his  claims.  If 
real  sincerity,  purity,  benevolence,  humility,  disinterested- 
ness, consistency,  appear  in  the  founder  of  a  religion;  if 
that  individual  present  himself  openly  before  the  eyes  of 
men;  if  he  submit  all  his  pretensions  to  their  scrutiny;  if, 
in  addition,  there  appear  in  him  calmness,  composure,  meek- 
ness; every  thing  the  most  opposite  to  enthusiasm  and  cre- 
dulity;— these  things  aiTord  a  strong  presumption  in  favor 
of  his  cause,  just  as  the  contrary  qualities  would  be  so 
many  presumptions  against  it. 

No  personal  virtues  can,  indeed,  strictly  speaking,  estab- 
lish a  divine  Revelation,  which  must  wait  for  its  proper 
proofs;  but  such  a  character  as  that  of  our  Lord,  supposes 
those  proofs  and  implies  them;  it  is  altogether  so  peculiar, 
so  far  elevated  above  any  other  that  ever  appeared,  as  to 
furnish  in  itself  the  strongest  presumption  of  the  truth  of  his 
pretensions. 


LECT.   XVII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  125 

2.     The  presumptive  argument  is  raised  yet  higher,  by 

CONTRASTING     THE      CHARACTER     OF     CHRIST     WITH     THAT    OF 

ALL  OTHERS  who  have  assumed  to  be  founders  of  a  new 
religion.  We  challenge  the  whole  world.  We  assert  that 
there  never  was  any  religion  but  the  Christian,  which  ex- 
hibited, in  the  person  of  its  founder,  a  spotless  model  for 
its  disciples  to  follow.  We  assert  there  never  was  any  re- 
ligion but  the  Christian,  in  which  its  author  united  excel- 
lence of  example  with  purity  of  precept.^  We  assert  there 
never  was  any  religion  but  the  Christian,  which  professed 
to  sum  up  all  morality  in  the  example  of  its  legislator;  and 
combined  in  it  all  the  purest  precepts,  and  the  most  lovely 
sentiments  of  moral  excellency. 

I  look  around  for  the  founder  of  a  religion  with  whom  I 
may  compare  Jesus  Christ.  I  see  the  masters  of  the  philo- 
sophic sects;  I  see  the  orators  and  reputed  sages  of  Greece 
and  Rome — all  is  impure  and  debased.  I  see  Zeno,  and 
Socrates,  and  Diogenes,  and  Epictetus,  and  Plato,  and  Aris- 
totle; I  see  Cicero,  and  Xenophon,  and  the  Catos  and  Sen- 
eca— inconsistency,  vanity,  profligacy,  folly,  cowardice, 
revenge,  idolatry,  obscure  the  fame  of  all.  I  can  discern 
no  perfectly  pure  and  unstained  character;  I  can  select  no 
model  for  the  imitation  of  mankind.  And  then,  I  object  to 
all  these  names.  Not  one  is  the  founder  of  a  religion. 
They  were  philosophers,,  discoursing  in  their  petty  acade- 
mies, not  authors  of  a  system  of  religion;  claiming  the  in- 
spiration of  Heaven,  and  professing  to  effect  the  spiritual 
deliverance  of  mankind.  What  I  look  for  is  the  founder  of 
a  religious  faith — independent,  new,  authoritative,  osten- 
sible. 

The  votaries  of  polytheism,  with  the  fables  entwined 
around  their  histories,  come  not  up  to  my  demand:  and  if 
they  did,  would  only  excite  disgust,  by  their  avowed  profli- 
gacy, cruelty,  and  sordid  covelousncss.  I  want  still  the 
promulgator  of  a  Revelation  from  heaven. 

At  length,  I  descry  one  arising  obscurely  in  the  eastern 
regions  of  Christendom,  at  a  time  when  its  primitive  faith 

(1)  Bisliop  James. 


126  LECTURKS    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVII, 

was  peculiarly  corrupted  and  debased.  I  see  Mahomet 
APPEAR.  I  obtain  what  I  required;  I  compare  his  claims; 
I  ask  what  were  his  professions;  what  his  personal  charac- 
ter; what  his  promises  to  his  followers;  what  the  spirit  he 
breathed;  what  the  example  he  set?  I  have  not  long  to 
wait  for  a  reply.  The  case  speaks  for  itself.  I  see  him 
indulge  in  the  grossest  vices;  I  see  him  transgressing  per- 
petually even  the  licentious  rules  which  he  liad  prescribed 
to  himself;  I  hear  him  lay  claim  to  a  special  commission 
from  heaven  to  riot  in  the  most  unlimited  sensuality.  This 
is  more  than  enough  for  my  argument.  But  I  look  again: 
I  see  him  violent,  rapacious,  impetuous,  sanguinary;  I  see 
him  pay  court  to  the  peculiar  vices  of  the  people  amongst 
whom  he  wished  to  propagate  his  doctrine;  I  see  him  prom- 
ise, as  the  reward  of  his  followers,  a  voluptuous  paradise, 
where  the  objects  of  their  base  affections  were  to  be  almost 
innumerable,  gifted  with  transcendent  beauty  and  eternal 
youth.     I  can  examine  no  further. 

From  a  character  so  base,  I  turn  to  the  holy  Jesus;  I  con- 
trast— but  I  pause.  I  cannot  insult  your  feelings  by  com- 
paring all  the  points  of  ineffable  purity  and  loveliness  in 
the  Founder  of  Christianity,  with  the  compound  of  sensual- 
ity, pride,  and  cruelty,  in  the  eastern  impostor.  You  feel 
how  the  presuni|)tion  of  the  truth  of  our  religion  is  height- 
ened, inconceivably  heightened,  by  the  contrast  in  the  only 
case  at  all  similar,  found  in  the  lapse  of  ages.'" 

(m)  Bishop  Sherlock  has  ndmirahiy  louched  this  argument.  ''Go  to  j'our  natural 
religion;  lay  before  her  Mahomet  and  his  disciples,  arra^-ed  in  armor  and  in  blood, 
ridin"'  in  triumph  over  tiie  spoils  of  lliousand^  and  ten  thousands,  who  fell  by  his  vic- 
torious sword;  show  her  the  cities  which  he  set  in  flames,  the  countries  which  he 
ravaged  and  destroyed,  and  the  miserable  distress  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  ihe  earth. 
When  she  has  viewed  him  in  this'scene,  carry  him  into  his  retirements.  Show  her 
the  prophet's  chamber,  his  concubines  and  wives;  let  hor  see  his  adultery,  and  hear 
him  allege  Revelation  and  his  divine  commission  to  justify  his  lust  and  his  oppres- 
sion. 

"When  she  is  tired  with  this  prospect,  then  show  her  the  blessed  Jesus,  humble 
and  meek,  doing  good  to  all  the  sons  of  men,  patiently  instructing  both  the  ignorant 
and  perverse:  let  her  see  him  in  his  most  retired  privacy;  let  her  follow  him  to  the 
mountain  and  hear  his  devotions  and  supplications  to  God.  Carry  her  to  his  table 
to  see  his  poor  fare,  and  hear  his  heavenly  discourse.  Let  her  see  him  injured,  but 
not  provoked;  let  her  attend  him  to  the  tribunals,  and  consider  the  patience  with 
which  he  endured  the  scofls  and  reproaches  of  his  enemies.     Lead  her  to  his  cross; 


LECT.   XVII,]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  127 

3.     But  this   presumption  proceeds   upwards  to   a  moral 
demonstration,  when  the  other  branches  of  the  cuius- 

TIAN  evidence  ARE  TAKEN  INTO  THE  ACCOUNT.    For  WC 

are  to  recollect  that  tlie  holy  life  and  astonishing  loveliness 
and  majesty  in  the  conduct  of  our  Lord  are  only  a  confirma- 
tory  evidence.      They  stand  amongst  our  internal  proofs. 
They  are  sustained  by  all  those  direct  credentials  of  a  mes- 
senger from  heaven,  which  we  exhibited   in  the  first  part  of 
our  course.     We  have  this  unparalleled  holiness,  this  union 
of  divine  and  human  excellency  in   him,  whom  the  prophe- 
cies pointed  out  as   to  appear  at   the   very  time  and  in  the 
very  manner  he  did,  as   about  to  bear  this  very  character, 
and  perform  these  very  miracles,  and  teach   this  self-same 
doctrine.     We  have  this  mingled  glory  and  humiliation  and 
innocency  in   him,  whose  astonishing  miracles  testified  that 
he  was  the   messenger  of  the  Almighty  and  the  Saviour  of 
the  w^orld.     In   a  word,  all  the   mass  of  external  testimony 
which  surrounds  the  divine  revelation  of  the  Bible,  pours  its 
full   eflfulgence  upon   the  person  of  Jesus  Clirist;  wiiilst  the 
person  and  works  of  Jesus  Christ  fulfil  the  prophecies,  in- 
clude  the  miracles,  are    followed  by  the    propagation    of 
the    religion,    and    arc    developed    in    its    prominent    and 
abiding  good  effects  upon  mankind.      In  like  manner,  all 
the  internal  proofs  arc,  as  it  were,  only  a  part  of  the  life   of 
Christ.     The  adaptation  of  Christianity   to  the  state    and 
wants  of  man,  its  sublime  doctrines,  its  spotless  morals,  are 
comments  on   the   gracious   and  condescending   character, 
the  meritorious  sacrifice,  the  immaculate  personal  virtues  of 
the  Son  of  God.     This  coincidence  carries   uj)  to   a  moral 
demonstration   the   presumption    whicli  the   issolatcd   argu- 
ment furnished,  and  which  the  contrast  between  the  found- 
ers of  every  other  religion,  or  rather  the   base    im})ost()r 
Mahomet  and  our  Lord,  raised  to  a  irreater   height.     We 


and  lei  her  view  him  in  the  agony  of  death,  and  hear  his  last  prayer  for  his  persecu- 
tors,— Father,  forgive  th(m,/or  they  knoxr  not  ichat  they  do. 

•'When  natural  religion  has  viewed  both,  ask — which  is  the  prophet  of  God?  But 
her  answer  we  have  already  had,  when  she  saw  part  of  this  scene  through  the  eyes 
of  the  centurion  who  attended  at  the  cross;  by  him  she  spake  and  said,  Trtihj,  this 
man  was  the  <S'on  "/ <7orf."— Bishop  Slicilock's  Sermons,  1.  271. 


1^8  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVH. 

see  the  incontrovertible  force  of  the  moral  demonstration: 
we  feel  the  utmost  repose  and  satisfaction  of  rnind;  we 
recline  with  entire  acquiescence  of  soul  upon  a  Saviour, 
whose  external  credentials  are  so  inseparably  united  with 
the  personal  wonders  of  his  unexampled  life. 

Indeed,  the  infidel  himself  is  compelled  to  bow  to  this 
irresistible  argument,  obstinately  as  he  may  refuse  to  be- 
lieve practically  in  the  Son  of  God.  The  facts  of  our 
Lord's  history  he  does  not  dispute.  Our  heathen  and  Jew- 
ish adversaries,  contemporaries  with  the  apostles,  admit 
these."  Tiie  purity  and  innocency  of  our  Lord's  life  are 
admitted  even  by  the  most  sceptical  of  their  number. 
Paine  himself  stands  mute  before  the  lovely  and  unspotted 
character  of  our  Saviour.  Rousseau  confesses  the  unparal- 
leled beauty  and  attraction  of  his  virtues.  Chub,  Boiling- 
broke,  Hobbes,  all  join  in  this  acknowledgment."  We  ask 
for  no  greater  admissions.  And  when  the  unbeliever  evades 
tiic  consequences,  as  he  does,  by  plunging  into  objections 
against  the  matter  of  Revelation,  we  remind  him  that  the 
ignorance  and  presumption  of  that  man  must  be  fearful  in- 
deed, who,  admitting  the  being  and  providence  of  one 
supreme  and  infinitely  glorious  God,  and  conceding  the 
facts  of  the  holy  life  of  Christ,  and  the  establishment  of 
his  gospel  in  the  face  of  an  opposed  and  hostile  world, 
can  venture  to  set  up  himself  as  a  judge  of  his  Maker,  and 
pretend  to  be  wiser  than  the  Almighty.? 

(n)  Lect.  V.  p.  IH. 

(o)  "Is  it  possible  that  he  whose  liislory  the  gospel  records  can  be  but  a  mere 
man?  Does  he  speak  in  the  tone  of  an  enthusiast,  or  of  an  ambitious  sectary?  M  hat 
mildness,  what  purity  in  his  manners'.  What  touching  grace  in  his  instructions, 
what  elevation  in  his  maxims!  what  profound  wisdom  in  his  discourses!  what  pres- 
ence of  mind!  what  ingenuity,  and  what  Justness  in  his  answers!  what  government 
of  liis  passions!  What  prejudice,  what  blindness  or  ill  faith  must  that  be  which  dares 
to  compare  the  son  of  Sophroniscus  with  the  Son  of  Mary!  What  a  difference  be- 
tween the  two!  Socrates  dying  without  pain,  without  disgrace,  easily  sustains  his 
part  to  the  last. — The  death  of  Socralcs  philosophizing  tranquilly  widi  his  friends, 
is  the  mildest  that  could  be  desired:  that  of  Jesus  expiring  in  torments,  injured,  mock- 
ed, cursed  by  all  the  people,  is  the  most  horrible  that  can  be  feared.  Socrates,  tak- 
ing the  empoisoned  cup,  blesses  him  who  presents  it  to  him  widi  tears.  Jesus,  in  the 
midst  of  a  frightful  punishment,  prays  for  his  enraged  executioners.  Yes,  if  the  life 
and  death  of  Socrates  are  those  of  a  sage;  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  are  those  of 
a  God." — Rousseau,  Emilc  iv. 

(p)  Led.  x.xi. 


LECT.   XVII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  129 

From  such  unreasonable  men  I  turn, 

4.  To  the  thoughtful  and  docile  hearer,  and  observe  that 
our  argument  ceases  not   in  its  course,  till   it  beaks  away 

THE      HEART,    AND     STRENGTHENS      ALL     THE      I'RINCIPLES      OF 
OUR    INDIVIDUAL    BELIEF    AND    LOVE. 

Yes,  I  speak  to  the  young  who  have  been  brought  up  in 
the  Christian  Faith — who  have  heard  from  their  infancy  of 
the  character  of  their  Lord — who  have  had  his  meek  and 
tender  example  placed  before  their  eyes — who  have  been 
taught  to  lisp  his  name;  and  I  ask  them,  Do  you  believe  in 
the  only  begotten  Son  of  God?  I  ask,  Do  you  repose  on 
his  siicrifice,  for  pardon?  Do  you  rely  on  his  intercession? 
Do  you  implore  his  [)romised  Spirit?  Do  you  trust  in  his 
promises?    Do  you  desire  to  behold  his  glory? 

Yes,  I  iiave  gained  my  point  with  you.  However  your 
faith  may  have  been  shaken  by  the  scofls  or  the  example  of 
the  wicked,  you  are  attracted  to  a  return  to  your  duty,  by 
the  ineffable  majesty  and  grace  of  Jesus  Christ.  You  be- 
hold him  once  again;  and  his  matchless  condescension,  love- 
liness, dignity,  win  your  heart.  You  feel  him  to  be  your 
brother,  your  companion,  your  compassionate  guide;  you 
see  him  to  be  your  Master,  your  Redeemer,  your  Saviour. 
You  believe  him  to  be  the  way,  the  truth,  the  life,  the  rock, 
the  refuge,  the  only  hope  of  a  lost  world. 

Cleave  to  him  then  with  more  affectionate  devotion  of 
soul.  It  has  been  s:iid,  that  if  virtue  could  api^ear  upon 
earth,  she  would  attract  by  her  beauties  the  love  of  man- 
kind. This  may  be  doubled,  even  as  to  the  narrow  notions 
of  virtue  entertained  by  tlie  heathen  pliihisopher  Vt'ho 
uttered  the  sentiment. i  Certainly,  when  perfect  virtue  in 
its  most  benevolent  form  appeared  on  earth  in  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ,  it  vvas  rejected,  despised,  calumniated.  Prob- 
ably to  the  most  perverse  and  sensual  heart  of  man,  no  ob- 
ject is  so  formidable,  so  disconcerting,  so  inexplicable,  as 
the  unparalleled   holiness   and  majesty  of  our   Lord.'"     But 

(q)  Plato. 

(r)  "The  character  of  Christ  is  more  incomprehensible  to  the  natural  reason  of  a 
carnal  man  than  the  deepest  mysteries,  more  improbable  than  ihe  greatest  miraclesj 
of  all  the  particulars  of  the  gospel  history,  the  most  trying  to  the  evil  heart  of  unbe- 
lief."— Horsiey's  Sermons,  xl. 

17 


LECT.    XVll.]        EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  130 

let  it  be  your  care  to  realize  the  supposition.  Let  incar- 
nate virtue  attract  your  love.  Let  your  faitli  be  more  and 
more  animated  with  devout  and  reverent,  but  affectionate 
and  iirateful  admiration.  Remember  what  your  Saviour 
hath  done  for  you — what  glory  it  was  which  he  left — what 
humiliation  it  was  he  sustained — what  sufferings  they  were 
which  he  exhausted — what  recompense  he  promises.  And 
he  only  bids  you  to  love  him  in  return,  to  follow  his  guid- 
ance, to  imitate  his  example,  to  tread  in  his  steps.  Yes, 
this  is  Christianity — Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified — 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  merit  of  his  death;  Jesus  Christ  in  the 
efficacy  of  his  Holy  Spirit;  Jesus  Christ  in  the  purity  of  his 
example.  Let  this  be  ever  engraven  on  your  hearts — the 
result  of  Christianity,  where  it  is  successful,  the  end  which 
it  proposes,  is  the  salvation  of  man  from  sin,  his  perfect 
reconciliation  with  God,  his  holy  obedience  in  this  world, 
his  enjoyment  of  eternal  happiness  in  the  next — that  is,  his 
union  with  Jesus  Christ,  his  assimilation  to  Jesus  Christ,  his 
partaking  of  the  benefits  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  following  the 
virtues  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  spending  eternity  with  Jesus 
Qhrist — where  is  the  fullness  ofjo7j,  and  at  whose  right  hand 
there  are  pleasures  for  evermore.' 

(s)  Psalm  xvi.  11. 


LECTURE   XVIII. 


THE  TENDENCY  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  PRO- 
MOTE IN  THE  HIGHEST  DEGREE  THE  TEM- 
PORAL AND  SPIRITUAL  HAPPINESS  OF  NA- 
TIONS AND  INDIVIDUALS.  r 

Luke  ii.   13,  14. 

And  suddenly  there  was  with  the  angel  a  multitude  of  the  heav- 
enly host,  praising  God  and  saying,  Glory  to  God  in  the 
highest,  and  on,  earth  peace,  goodwill  towards  men. 

We  considered  in  one  of  our  former  lectures  the  more  ob- 
vious good  effects  which  Christianity  iias  produced. =*  We 
ranged  this  subject  amongst  the  E\ternal  Evidences,  be- 
cause the  positive  fruits  of  the  Christian  doctrine  had  be- 
come, during  the  lapse  of  ages,  a  solid,  tangible  proof,  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  internal  character  and  structure  of 
the  religion;  and  lying  open  to  the  observation  of  mankind, 
like  the  facts  which  establish  the  credibility  of  the  gospel 
narrative,  or  those  which  prove  the  divine  propagation  and 
preservation  of  Christianity  amongst  mankind. 

We  now  come  to  consider  the  tendency  of  Christianity 
to  promote,  in  the  highest  degree,  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
welfare   of  individuals  and   nations;  a   topic   which   arises, 

(a)  Vol.  1.  Lcct.  xi. 


132  LKCJI RKS    ON    THE  [ 


I.ECT.   XVIII. 


indeed,  from  that  to  \vliicli  we  have  referred,  but  which 
goes  much    farther,  and    fornis    another    species   of   j^roof. 

The  more  pr<>n)iiient  henefits  aheady  conferred  on  the 
world  by  Christianity,  is  one  thing;  its  tendency  to  produce 
yet  higher  and  more  numerous  benefits,  is  anoiher.  The 
first  is  an  external  proof;  the  second  an  internal.  The  first 
accompanies  thp  religion  from  without,  and  lies  open  to  the 
observation  of  every  candid  inquirer;  the  second  springs 
from  the  constitution  and  frame- work  of  the  religion  from 
within,  and  derhands  a  more  familiar  knowledge  and  closer 
attentimi.  The  one  is  a  primary  evidence  of  Christianity; 
the  other  a  subsidiary,  going  to  confirm  the  proper  proofs 
supposed  to  be  known. 

This  innate  bearing  and  wo; king  of  Christianity  towards 
effects  far  more  extensive  and  permanent  than  any  which  it 
has  yet  produced,  is,  indeed,  one  of  tlie  most  forcible  of 
the  Internal  Evidences.  It  is  also  a  subject  peculiarly 
suitable  to  an  age  like  the  present.  There  is  nothing  which 
men  in  a  high  state  of  mental  culture,  more  regard  than  the 
tendencies  of  things.  This  is  the  standard  by  which  they 
judge.  They  not  only  consider  what  eflects  are  already 
produced  by  principles,  but  what  is  their  native  and  es- 
sential force — what  would  be  the  consequences  if  hind- 
rances were  removed,  and  they  uere  allowed  their  full  scope 
and  operation.  Much  of  human  prudence  and  forethought 
rests  on  this  obvious  dictate  of  wisdom.  The  separate  acts 
of  men  for  good  or  for  evil — the  separate  discoveries  in  sci- 
ence and  art — the  separate  measures  of  the  statesman  and 
legislator,  are  not  the  points  which  occupy  our  chief  con- 
cern. It  is  the  tendency  of  their  separate  acts;  it  is  the 
principles  from  which  they  spring,  their  bearing  upon  hab- 
its, their  possible  extension  to  all  the  interests  of  science 
and  all  the  commercial  and  moral  prosperity  of  a  nation, 
that  give  them  their  real  importance.  Single  violations  of 
law,  also,  would  often  be  less  attended  to  by  the  magistrate, 
if  it  were  not  for  the  natural  tendency  of  such  violations  to 
undermine  all  authority  and  bring  in  universal  confusion. 
It  is  the  recollection  of  this  tendency  of  crime  v.hich  arms 
the  judge  with  inflexibility  even  upon  the  first  oflcnce,  and 


LECT.     XVIII.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITV.  133 

which  inspires  the  peaceful  citizen  with  acquiescence  in  his 
decisions. 

Now  what  we  have  to  prove  in  the  present  Lecture  is, 
that  the  strong  and  essential  tendency  of  the  Christian 
religion,  is  to  produce  the  utmost  measure  of  individual  and 
national  happiness;  that  it  is  constantly  working  towards 
this  result,  and  that  when  hindrances  are  removed,  it  will 
actually  produce  it. 

But  how  are  we  to  judge  in  such  a  case?  How  can  we 
most  clearly  bring  out  a  proof,  which,  if  established,  will 
constitute  one  of  the  most  convincing  of  the  internal  evi- 
dences of  our  faith? 

We  cannot,  perhaps,  proceed  better  than  by  considering 
how  we  argue  in  somewhat  similar  cases.  For  example, 
the  tendency  of  reason  to  subdue  brute  force  is  universally 
admitted.  So  again,  the  tendency  of  moral  virtue  to  over- 
come vice,  and  of  natural  relijrion  or  the  fear  of  God  to 
triumph  over  sin  and  profaneness,  is  allowed  by  all  who  be- 
lieve in  the  being  and  perfections  of  the  great  Creator.** 

Now  in  what  way  are  these,  tendencies  demonstrated? 
Is  it  not  by  first  considering  the  direction  which  they  take 
— the  aim,  the  object,  the  scope  of  each: 

When  this  is  ascertained,  is  it  not  by  considering  the 
hindrances  which  brute  force,  or  vice,  or  sin  and  irreligion, 
oppose  to  the  tendency  under  consideration? 

Do  we  not  next  weigh  the  effects  actually  produced  by 
the  principles  under  review,  as  the  iiindrances  are  more  or 
less  removed?  We  take,  for  instance,  a  case  where  the 
obstacles  are  most  numerous;  another  where  they  are  less 
so;  a  third,  where  they  are  almost  entirely  cleared  away 
And  if  we  find,  that  in  proportion  as  the  obstacles  are 
diminished,  the  good  effects  increase — and  this  uniformly 
under  many  varieties  of  circumstances,  at  different  times 
and  distant  parts  of  the  world — we  conclude  that  the  ten- 
dency is  genuine  and  strong. 

We  thence  infer  that  if  all  the  obstacles  were  removed, 
the    full   effects  of   the   principle   would   appear,   and    the 

(li)  Hf).  Rutler. 


134 


LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    Xvm. 


greatest  possible  happiness  be  produced  which  the  case 
admitted  of: — that  is,  the  greatest  possible  happiness  which 
reason,  moral  virtue,  or  the  religion  of  nature,  was  calcu- 
lated to  bring  out. 

Let  us  apply  this  method  to  the  Christian  doctrine,  which 
goes  far  beyond  mere  reason,  virtue,  or  religion,  when  un- 
assisted by  the  light  and  grace  of  Revelation;  and  which, 
carrying  on  these  lower  principles  to  their  utmost  height, 
rises  above  them,  adds  the  discovery  of  fiicts,  of  doctrines, 
of  divine  aids,  to  which  they  were  strangers,  and  bestows 
on  man,  first,  all  the  happiness,  both  temporal  and  spiritual, 
of  which  his  circumstances  in  this  world  admit;  and  then 
conducts  him  to  that  eternal  bliss  which  neither  reason,  nor 
virtue,  nor  natural  religion,  could  discover  or  secure. 

Let  us  examine,  then,  the  .tendency  of  the  Christian  doc- 
trine, as  we  would  that  of  the-principles  to  which  we  have 
referred.  Let  us  carefully  observe  the  end  to  which  it  is 
invariably  directed.  Let  us  consider  the  obstacles  which 
are  known  to  impede  its  course.  Let  us  examine  its  oper- 
ations at  successive  periods  and  under  difterent  circumstan- 
ces. Let  us  discover  whether  the  end  originally  aimed  at 
and  invariably  pursued,  is  more  nearly  accomplished  in  pro- 
portion as  the  known  obstacles  are  diminished.  We  shall 
then  have  a  right  to  conclude  that,  if  all  the  hindrances 
were  removed  and  nothing  left  to  check  its  genuine  force, 
the  result  would  be,  the  greatest  possible  happiness  which 
the  religion  was  designed  to  bring  out — that  is,  the  highest 
temporal   and   spiritual   welfare  of  individuals  and  nations. 

These  are  then  our  four  points — Tlie  dikection  which 
Christianity  takes — The  iiindjiances  which  are  opposed  to 
it — Its  SUCCESS  in  proportion  to  the  removal  of  them — The 
ULTIMATE  EFFECTS  wliicli  it  wiU  producc  wlicu  all  obsta- 
cles shall  be  cleared  away.     Wo  consider, 

L  The  diuection  which  Christianity  takes — the  ob- 
ject at  which  it  invariably  aims:  this  we  must  first  ascertain. 
The  gospel  can  never  have  an  essential  tendency  towards 
the  highest  temporal  and  spiritual  happincs  of  individuals 
and  nations,  unless  this  is  the  direction  which  it  takes,  and 
takes  clearly,  invariably,  and  with  a  native  force. 


LECT.   XVIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  135 

And  surely  much  need  not  be  said  on  this  part  of  the 
aro'ument.  For  what  means  the  adaptation  of  Christianity 
to  the  state  and  wants  of  man/  but  that  it  aims  at  restor- 
ing a  fallen  world,  at  opening  fully  its  disease,  applying  an 
adequate  remedy,  and  producing  the  greatest  possible  hap- 
piness? 

What  means  the  scheme  of  Christian  doctrine, '^  center- 
ing in  the  incarnation  and  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God,  but 
that  Christianity  has  a  direct  tendency  to  bless  man,  to 
raise  him  to  pardon,  to  peace  of  conscience,  and  to  the 
hope  of  everlasting  life? 

What  are  the  morals'^  of  Christianity,  but  another  name 
for  a  powerful  tendency  and  bias  towards  human  happiness? 
What  means  the  example  of  our  Lord,*"  but  that  Christian- 
ity carries  with  it  the  strongest  movement  towards   benevo- 
lence, purity,  love  to  God  and  man? 

What,  in  short,  is  there  in  the  Christian  Revelation  which 
does  not  strongly  bear  upon  man's  temporal  and  spiritual 
welfare — that  does  not  tend  to  communicate  knowledge 
and  HOLINESS^ — two  words  which  comprehend  the  whole  of 
practical  religion,  and  the  whole  of  true  happiness? 

There  is  a  genuine,  strong,  essential  bias  in  every  part  of 
the  gospel,  to  elevate  man,  to  deliver  him  from  intellectual 
and  moral  bondage,  to  fill  his  mind  with  light,  and  truih, 
and  purity,  and  love;  to  engage  him  in  the  pursuit  of  the 
highest  object,  and  aid  him  in  following  it;  to  unite  him, 
in  short,  with  God,  the  centre  of  felicity,  and  qualify  him 
for  the   enjoyment   of  his  presence. 

Reason  is  not  more  evidently  directed  towards  human 
happiness,  nor  virtue,  nor  natural  religion,  than  revealed 
truth  tends  to  the  utmost  degree  of  man's  present  and  future 
welfare.  These  principles,  indeed,  cannot  be  compared 
for  a  moment  with  the  gospel;  because,  through  the  fall  and 
corruption  of  man,  tiiey  are  incapable  of  communicating 
the  highest  felicity.  Man  wants  something  more  than  mere 
reason  or  moral  virtue,  or  the  ligiit  of  nature.  He  requires 
salvation,  a   way  of  forgiveness,  a  spring   of  new  life   and 

(c)  Lecture  xiv.  (d)  Lecture  xv.  (e)  Lecture  xvi. 

(f)  Lcct.  xvii.  (g)  Eph.  iv.  24.     Col.  iii.  10. 


136  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVllI. 

strength  for  obedience,  a  clear  revelation  of  immortality. 
If,  therefore,  reason  and  its  kindred  powers  arc  allowed  to 
have  a  tendency  towards  human  happiness,  how  much  more 
has  Christianity  that  bearing,  which  embraces  all,  and  more 
flian  all,  that  conscience  and  tradition  ever  taught,  and 
which  superadds  a  peculiar  method  of  redemption  of  its 
own,  by  the  Son  and  Spirit  of  God? 

And  ,this,  indeed,  is  one  proof  of  its  powerful  innate  vir- 
tue, that  it  comes  down  to  mam's  actual  circumstances, 
and  bears  upon  him  as  he  is.  It  does  not  take  for  granted 
certain  previous  [joints  which  do  not  in  reality  exist;  as,  tiiat 
such  and  such  good  effects  will  follow,  if  men  obey  reason,  if 
they  are  virtuous,  if  they  are  under  a  good  form  of  govern- 
ment. This  is  the  error  of  the  mere  moralist  and  philoso- 
pher. Fine-spun  theories  are  devised;  but  which  do  not 
take  up  man  as  he  is,  and  therefore  produce  little  or  no 
effect. 

It  is  the  glory  of  Christianity,  that  its  energy  appears  in 
its  bearing  upon  man  in  his  actual  state  of  disorder,  ignor- 
ance and  guilt.     It  is  essentially  a  remedial  system. 

The  science  of  medicine  has  not  moie  evidently  a  tend- 
ency lo  our  temporal  welfare  and  the  prolongation  of  life, 
because  it  comes  to  man  with  all  his  diseases,  and  works 
beneficially  upon  him  in  this  state,  than  Christianity  has  a 
tendency  to  his  moral  and  spiritual  welfare. 

So  essential,  indeed,  is  this  bias,  that  Christianity  has  no 
OTHER.  It  abstains  from  all  inferior  objects,  which  might 
weaken  or  turn  aside  its  force.  It  keeps  aloft  in  its  high 
vocation.  It  wisely  forbears  to  intermingle  with  the  strife  of 
men.  It  appears  only  as  the  minister  of  truth,  the  herald 
of  peace,  the  assuager  of  human  woe,  the  teacher  of  good 
things;  the  enemy  of  all  that  is  unjust,  cruel,  impure;  the 
friend  of  all  that  is  right,  chaste,  benevolent;  the  child  of 
heaven,  and  the  preparer  for  its  joys. 

And  if  this  be  the  bearing  of  the  gospel  as  to  individuals, 
what  is  it  as  to  nations?  Its  tendency,  indeed,  here  can- 
not be  so  obvious,  because  Christianity  is  a  practical  thing, 
and  therefore  can  only  have  its  proper  seat  in  the  individ- 
ual.    But  what  are  nations  but  masses  of  individuals?    What 


LECT.    XVIII.]       EVIDENCES    OF     CHRISTIANITY.  137 

is  social,  but  the  multiplication  of  personal,  happiness? 
What  is  it  that  makes  up  families,  neighborhoods,  cities, 
nations,  kingdoms,  but  a  multitude  of  individuals?  It  is 
quite  obvious  then,  that  if  Christianity  takes  the  direction 
of  personal  happiness,  it  promotes  also  national  and  uni- 
versal. 

It  does  this  directly  and  indirectly.  It  does  it  directly, 
because  it  is  the  very  foundation  of  society.  It  is  a  system 
of  righteousness.  Sterling  truth,  equity,  justice,  without 
which  society  cannot  subsist,  are  no  where  so  forcibly  in- 
culcated as  in  the  Christian  religion. 

Then  it  supplies  the  defects  of  human  laws.  It  is  seated 
in  the  conscience,  it  interposes  a  Divine  tribunal,  it  regards 
the  secret  intention  of  man,  it  goes  to  the  principle  of  obe- 
dience, it  restrains  not  by  fear  of  punishment  merely,  but 
by  the  innate  desire  to  please  God  and  benefit  our  fellow 
creatures.  What  are  oaths,  without  Christianity  as  their 
basis?  What  arc  human  statutes,  without  the  authority  of 
the  supreme  Legislator? 

Again:  Christianity  goes  to  subdue  the  selfishness  of  man, 
and  implant  that  regard  for  the  welfare  of  others  which  is 
the  spring  of  genuine  patriotism  and  devotion  to  the  good 
of  our  country.  And  what,  I  ask,  must  be  the  working  of 
that  religion  whose  main  object  is  to  eradicte  the  selfish  pas- 
sions? 

And  why  should  I  speak  of  the  bearings  of  the  charity  of 
Christianity,  of  its  spirit  of  beneficence,  its  forgiveness  of 
injuries,  its  delight  in  communicating  good,  its  genuine, 
diffusive,  heartfelt  sympathy?  Must  not  all  this  go  to  the 
cementing  together  the  society  of  mankind,  and  the  ren- 
dering nations  one  great  and  united  family? 

And  what  is  the  tendency  of  all  the  Christian  precepts — of 
its  relative  duties,  its  rules  for  the  lowest  and  higest  orders 
of  society,  its  prescriptions  of  loyalty  and  subjection  to  the 
powers  that  be;  of  the  commands  which  restrain,  animate, 
and  direct  every  class  of  persons  in  a  state;  the  injunctions 
which  go  to  extinguish  the  causes  of  disunion,  turbulence, 
sedition,  war? 

18 


138  lectifhes  on  the  [lect.  xviii. 

Again:  how  can  wc  speak  adequately  of  the  indirect 
tendency  of  the  gospel  to  advance  the  temporal  and  spirit- 
ual welfare  of  nations!  For  there  is  this  of  remarkable  in 
Christianity,  that  none  can  approach  within  its  sphere  of 
influence,  without  deriving  some  advantage  from  it.  It  in- 
directly works  upon  thousands  whom  it  never  persuades  to 
receive  its  yoke.  It  operates  by  the  medium  of  others.  It 
raises  the  standard  of  morals.  It  induces  large  bodies  of 
liien  to  imitate,  in  various  respects,  the  conduct  of  its  gen- 
uine disciples.  It  deters  from  evil  by  the  means  of  shame, 
an  enlightened  conscience,  the  fear  of  exposure.  Each 
Christian  is  a  centre  of  influence,  in  which  his  example  and 
instructions  are  continually  operating. 

Thus  by  degrees  public  opinion  begins  to  work;  and  as 
this  spreads,  it  reaches  magistrates  and  nobles,  it  sways  tlje 
minds  of  legislators,  it  opens  the  ears  of  princes,  it  leads  to 
national  measures  in  honor  of  Almighty  G'od,  and  for  the 
propagation  and  support  of  revealed  religion;  and  thus  it 
brings  down  that  blessing  upon  states  which  is  the  spring  of 
real  prosperity. 

Thus  Christianity  is,  like  a  powerful  under-current,  flow- 
ing beneath  the  main  stream  of  life,  which,  without  min- 
gling or  defding  itself  with  the  troubled  waters,  pursues  its 
pure,  though  unseen  course,  preserving  its  original  virtue, 
and  ready  to  burst  forth  and  fertilize  all  around,  as  external 
obstacles  are  removed. 

But  this  leads  us  to  notice — 

II.  The  hindrances  which  impede  the  full  effects 
OF  THE  Christian  religion;  for  this  is  the  next  branch  of 
our  argument.  The  strength  of  any  tendency  may  be  judg- 
ed of,  in  a  good  measure,  by  the  known  obstacles  against 
which  it  has  to  work.  Wc  estimate  the  genuine  bearing  of 
reason  by  considering  the  brute  force  which  is  opposed  to 
it;  we  measure  the  real  bias  of  virtue  by  the  resistance  which 
vice  puts  forth  against  it;  we  discern  the  tendency  of  natu- 
ral religion  by  the  counteracting  power  of  sin  and  profane- 
ness.  There  would  be  no  tendency,  properly  speaking,  in 
any  of  these  cases,  if  there  were  no  strong  impeding  princi- 
ples— all  would  be  cflcct,  not  tendency. 


LECT.  XVIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  139 

Against  the  Christian  religion,  then,  there  are  opposing 
forces  drawn  up,  which  will  assist  us  in  gauging  its  essen- 
tial leaning  towards  the  highest  good  of  man. 

For  fearful  are  these  obstacles;  narrow  have  been  hith- 
erto the  limits  of  real  Christianity;  numerous  are  the  imped- 
iments which  hedge  it  in.  I  know  the  difficuly  of  treating 
in  a  clear  and  perspicuous  manner  this  part  of  our  argument. 
The  mind  is  prone  to  hasty  and  most  unreasonable  conclu- 
sions. We  see  hindrances,  we  see  Christianity  checked  on 
every  hand:  we  confound  facts  with  causes. 

But  if  we  examine  the  real  state  of  things,  we  shall  see 
that  the  obstacles  spring  from  a  source  extrinsic  from  Chris- 
tianity; that  they  are  incidental  and  temporary,  not  essen- 
tial and  permanent;  and  that  they  serve  to  demonstrate  the 
innate  force  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  which  makes  head 
against  them,  and  is  gradually  overcoming  them. 

For  what  are  the  chief  hindrances  with  which  Christianity 
has  to  contend?  Are  they  not  the  hostility  of  some,  and 
the  neglect  of  others?  Is  not  the  enmity  of  the  human  heart 
to  the  main  doctrines  and  precepts  of  Revelation,  a  princi- 
pal barrier  against  its  progress?  Does  not  also  indifference 
and  apathy  to  these  peculiarities  disincline  man  from  enter- 
taining the  religion?  Besides  these  obstacles,  do  not  the 
vices  of  its  false  adherents,  and  the  crimes  and  hypocrisy  of 
its  pretended  friends,  form  another  formidable  impediment 
— to  which  must  be  added  the  various  imperfections  and 
errors  of  sincere  Christians  themselves?  Then  take  in  the 
more  public  obstacles  presented  by  corruptions  of  the  Chris- 
tian doctrines  introduced  into  churches — the  contagion  of 
heresy,  the  vices  and  unfaithfulness  of  many  of  the  minis- 
ters and  professed  teachers  of  Christianity:  to  say  nothing 
of  the  apostacies  in  the  East  and  West,  which  have  left 
little  of  Christianity  in  those  quarters  except  the  name.  The 
persecutions  directed,  from  time  to  time,  against  the  sin- 
cere disciples  of  the  religion,  must  be  added;  as  well  as  the 
fearful  neglect,  with  regard  to  religious  influence,  of  which 
princes  and  legislators  have  too  frequently  been  guilty. 
Then  the  judicial  infatuation  permitted  by  Almighty  God, 
in  punishment  of  infidelity  and  obstinate  resistance  to  duty, 


140  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVIII, 

must  be  considered.  And,  lastly,  the  great  spiritual  adver- 
sary, who  either  dcccircth  the  nations;  or  u-alkctli  about,  as  a 
roaring  lion,  seeking  whom  he  may  devour.^ 

Such  are  the  known  obstacles  which  impede  the  course 
of  Christianity.  And  whence  do  they  arise?  Surely  not 
from  the  gospel  itself,  but  from  a  totally  different  source, 
the  depravity  and  perverseness  of  man.  They  are  therefore 
so  far  from  belonging  to  Christianity,  that  they  form  a  part 
of  that  disease,  which  it  is  aiming  to  cure.  The  corruption 
of  man,  be  it  ever  remembered,  was  not  introduced  by  the 
Christian  Revelation,  nor  in  consequence  of  it;  it  is  a  con- 
dition of  mankind  existing  as  much  under  natural  as  reveal- 
ed religion.  Christianity  finds  man  perverse,  corrupt, 
vicious;  and  brings  in  the  only  efficient  remedy — a  remedy 
the  tendencies  (if  which  are  to  overcome  that  corruption  in 
every  form.  The  science  of  medicine  is  not  less  a  healing 
process,  nor  less  beneficial  in  its  tendency,  because  multi- 
tudes will  not  fellow  its  directions,  and  various  diseases  do 
not  at  once  yield  to  its  power.  The  reign  of  a  virtuous  and 
beneficent  prince,  does  not  less  tend  towards  the  best  wel- 
fare of  his  subjects,  because  there  may  be  obstacles  to  the 
full  execution  of  his  designs,  in  the  political  constitution  or 
moral  habits  of  the  people  whom  he  governs. 

The  hindrances  then  to  Christianity  are  extrinsic  and  for- 
eign, not  innate  and  peculiar.  They  are  incidental,  not 
essential  and  permanent.  They  are  not  inherent  in  the  re- 
li<Tion,  but  arise  from  an  entirely  distinct  cause,  the  deprav- 
ity of  man.  The  true  tendency  and  bearing  of  the  Chris- 
tian Revelation,  is  not  to  create  or  augment  those  hindran- 
ces, but  to  work  against  and  overcome  them.  As  well 
might  brute  force  be  said  to  spring  from  reason,  or  vice  to 
arise  from  virtue,  or  profaneness  and  sin  from  the  fear  of 
God,  as  corruption  and  disorder  from  the  Christian  Revela- 
tion— that  corruption  and  disorder  which  we  find  to  be  in 
fact  partially  removed,  which  yields  continually  to  the  moral 
force  which  the  gospel  brings  to  bear  upon  it,  and  which, 
in  truth,  is  the  gauge  and  measure  of  the  true  tendency  of 
the  religion. 

li)  Rev.  XX.  3.     1  relcr  v.  8. 


LECT.  XVIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  141 

For  as  the  tendency  of  a  fountain  to  ascend,  is  judged  of 
by  the  superincumbent  earth  through  which  it  makes  its 
way,  and  as  the  strength  of  a  river-barrier  is  estimated  by 
the  resisting  force  of  the  current;  so  the  virtue  and  bias  of 
Christianity  are  measured  by  the  mighty  obstacles  wliich  it 
is  perpetually  overcoming.  He  that  knows  best  the  deep 
corruption  of  human  nature — he  that  understands  most  ade- 
quately the  hostility  of  man  to  real  religion,  and  his  apathy 
to  invisible  and  spiritual  things;  he  who  has  surveyed  most 
widely  the  vices  and  crimes  of  the  false  friends  of  Christian- 
ity; he  who  is  most  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  corrup- 
tions in  the  visible  church,  and  who  knows  best  the  mis- 
directed influence  of  governors  and  princes; — can  form 
the  soundest  judgment  of  the  force  of  the  obstacles  which 
oppose  the  progress  of  Christianity,  and  can  discern  most 
clearly,  amidst  those  various  impediments,  the  innate  and 
essential  virtue  of  the  religion  which  is  working  against 
them. 

The  hindrances,  then,  are  known,  and  placed  boldly  be- 
fore the  mind.  I  dwell  not  on  the  judicial  infatuation  which 
falls  upon  nations  or  individuals  as  a  punishment  of  sin;  nor 
on  the  great  spiritual  adversary;  because  these  are  most 
obviously  extrinsic  from  the  Christian  religion,  and  derive 
their  existence  or  force  from  the  very  corruption  of  man, 
which  is,  properly  speaking,  l;ie  only  obstacle  by  which  the 
native  flow  of  Christianity  is  impeded  and  restrained. 

Let  us  proceed  next  to  consider, 

III.     The    success    of    ciiristianiy  in    propoktion    to 

THE    REMOVAL    OF    THESE    HINDRANCES. 

For  in  this  manner  we  judge  of  the  tendency  of  a  princi- 
ple. After  considering  its  known  obstacles,  we  examine  its 
success  under  different  circumstances.  We  take  a  view 
of  it  in  a  most  unfavorable,  a  less  unfavorable,  and  an  act- 
ually favorable  position.  If  we  consider  the  case  of  reason, 
for  instance,  we  inquire  whether,  under  circumstances  more 
or  less  advantageous,  its  success  is  proportionate.  We  do 
the  same  with  virtue  and  with  natural  religion.  The  more 
numerous  are  the  experiments  we  make,  in  times  the  most 
distant  from  each  other,  at  places  the  most  remote,  and 


142  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XVIII. 

witli  nations  and  individuals  under  every  variety  of  situation, 
the  clearer  is  our  demonstration.  Accordingly,  in  the  cases 
alleged,  all  with  whom  we  are  concerned — that  is,  ali  wlio 
allow  the  existence  and  perfections  of  Almighty  God — ad- 
mit the  conclusion.  Tlicy  find  that  reason  succeeds  and 
works  its  beneficial  effects  in  exact  proportion  as  hindran- 
ces are  removed.  They  find  that  this  holds  under  all  cir- 
cumstances, in  all  places,  and  all  times.  They  perceive 
that,  in  certain  positions  of  things,  brute  force  may  gain  the 
day  for  a  moment;  and  that  it  never  wholly  disappears,  or 
rarely  so,  even  when  overcome.  But  remarking  the  uni- 
form power  which  reason  puts  -forth,  as  extrinsic  hindrances 
are  cleared  away,  tliey  draw  their  inference  as  to  its  essen- 
tial and  innate  tendency.  So  with  regard  to  virtue  and  the 
religion  of  nature. 

And  thus  we  argue  as  it  respects.  Christianity.  We  ap- 
peal to  facts.  Let  us  take  the  religion  under  very  different 
circumstances;  let  us  examine  it  in  various  places  and  at 
various  times;  let  us  look  to  nations  and  individuals,  under 
all  peculiarities  of  advantage  of  disadvantage;  let  us  con- 
sider its  operation  as  it  is  now  in  progress  before  our  eyes; 
let  us  recollect  the  new  and  unexpected  principles  which  it 
set  at  work;  let  us  bear  in  mind  the  warning  which  its  records 
afford  us  of  many  of  its  chief  obstacles.  The  proof  will 
be  strengthened  by  every  step  in  the  argument..'  Grant  me 
your  attention. 

I  say  nothing  of  the  first  propagation  of  Christianity, 
because  such  means  were  then  employed  by  the  Almighty 
as  exempt  it  from^ordinary  rules.  But  take  ihe  ace  follow- 
ing THE  establishment  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  I  ask  what  is 
the  tendency  which  Christianity  actually  put  forth.  What 
is  the  evidence  of  facts.''  What  did  the  religion  do  for 
human  happiness,  both  individual  and  national?  I  ask,  what 
were  the  Corintiiians,  the  Thessalonians,  and  other  converts, 
before  Christianity  reached  them,  and  in  the  age  after  it 
had  begun  its  operation?  Had  it  not  brought  them  from 
darkness  to  light,  from  degrading  ignorance,  superstition, 
vice,  misery;  to  knowledge,  lioliness,  joy?  And  when  it 
had  done  this  in  some  considerable  measure,  did  it  not  go 


LECT.  XVIII.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  143 

on  as  a  leaven,  to  leaven,  as  it  were,  the  whole  mass,  of 
their  intellectual  and  moral  character?  And  continually  as 
new  converts  were  made,  were  not  these  a  seed  of  activity 
in  their  several  stations?  Did  not  Christianity  soon  put  to 
shame  many  of  the  grossest  vices  of  heathenism?  Was 
not  an  influence  generated  all  around,  which,  like  a  hea- 
venly fragrance,  diffused  refreshment  and  life  far  and  near? 

Take  the  nkxt  ages.  Sec  the  progress  of  the  religion 
under  the  Roman  emperors.  Mark  its  sway  when  the  first 
Christian  emperor  removed  so  many  external  obstacles. 
What  did  Christianity  do?  how  did  she  put  forth  her  virtues? 
how  did  siie  break  out,  as  a  fountain  whose  streams  had 
been  choked,  when  relieved  from  hindrances? 

Trace  the  religion  in  the  following  centuries,  as  human 
corruption  accumulated  around  it  again,  and  almost  extin- 
guished its  light  and  grace  in  the  East  and  West.  See  it 
working  its  way  amongst  the  Waldenses  and  Albigenses; 
see  Claudius  of  Turin,  and  W^aldo  and  Bernard,  and  others, 
defending  the  sacred  doctrine^  and  demonstrating  again  its 
genuine  tendencies  on  human  happiness. 

Come  down  to  the  glorious  period  of  the  Reformation, 
when,  after  ten  centuries  of  darkness,  and  neglect  of  real 
Christianity,  and  of  the  triumph,  though  not  universal,  of 
superstition  and  idolatry,  Luther  and  his  associate  reformers 
brought  the  gospel  again  to  liglit,  and  appealed  from  the 
traditions  of  men  to  the  inspired  word  of  God.  What  was 
the  tendency?  what  bearing  had  Christianity?  what  progress 
did  it  make,  in  proportion  as  the  outward  hindrances  were 
removed? 

Take  any  subsequent  age.  Consider  the  individuals  and 
nations  gained  from  time  to  time  from  heatiienism,  or  from 
gross  corruptions  of  Christianity.  Examine  the  benefits, 
the  positive  benefits,  which  Christianity  first  produced,  and 
then  pushed  forth  its  tendencies  to  the  highest  measure  of 
attainable  happiness.  I  appeal  now,  not  to  reasoning,  but 
to  matters  of  fact.  Mark  any  individual  who  has,  in  any 
age,  really  received  the  religion.  I  ask,  what  has  been  the 
bearing  of  Christianity  upon  his  intellectual  and  moral 
powers,  upon  his  conscience,  iiis  heart,  his  domestic  aftec- 


144  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XVIIl. 

tions?  What  has  his  religion  tended  to  make  him?  How 
far,  and  in  what  direction,  has  it  aimed  at  carrying  him 
beyond  the  point  of  his  actual  attainments?  Watch  him 
through  life.  Compare  the  tendency  of  one  year's  growth, 
with  that  of  forty  or  fifty  years.  Compare  it  when  circum- 
stances have  been  most  favorable  for  its  development; 
when  they  have  been  less  favorable;  and  when  they  have 
been  positively  disadvantageous;  and  you  will  find  the  ef- 
fects proportionate.  The  man  has  been  advancing  in  all  the 
essentials  of  happiness;  in  all  the  elements  of  inward  peace 
and  external  tranquillity;  in  all  the  passive  as  well  as  active 
virtues,  which  render  him  a  blessing  to  himself  and  a  bless- 
ing to  others. 

The  proportion  holds  with  regard  to  national  welfare. 
The  tendency  becomes  discernible  as  soon  as  a  country  has 
received  the  Christian  faith;  it  becomes  more  distinct  the 
longer  the  operation  continues.     As  public  opinion  is  ele- 
vated, and  princes  and  legislators  are  swayed  by  its  dictates, 
the  spirit  of  improvement  grows;  one  evil  after  another  is 
detected;  institutions,   in  harmony   with   Christian   benevo- 
lence, arise;  habits  and  practices  of  a  contrary  nature  drop 
off;  all  becomes  more  pure  in  domestic  life,  more  paternal 
in  government,  more  pacific  and  secure  in  public  council. 
In  a  word,  wherever  the  moral  engine  has  been  employed, 
it  has  brought  its  new  and  unlooked-for  means  to  bear;  the 
inward  mechanism  has  put  forth  its  powers;  the  play  and 
subservience  of  its  parts  one  on  the  other  has  shown  their 
wonderful  effects.     In   proportion  to  the  opportunity  which 
has   been   afforded,   and   the   extrinsical  hindrances  which 
have  been  removed,  its  genuine  operation  has  gone  on.     It 
has    raised  up    man  from   the   depths   of  misery,  and    has 
blessed  him  in  every  relation  of  life — as  a  subject  of  civil 
society,  as  a  member  of  the  domestic  circle,  as  a  reasonable 
and  accountable  creature,  as  an  heir  of  immortality. 

But  this  tendency  is  still  in  progress.  It  is  at  work 
before  our  eyes.  It  is  not  an  operation  which  took  place 
merely  in  other  times,  and  which  is  recorded  by  the  pen  of 
the  ecclesiastical  historian;  but  it  is  now  going  on.  Look 
around  you.     See  the  Christian  faith  exerting  its  genuine 


LECT.     XVIII.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY,  145 

virt lie" every  clay,  just  as  the  incumbent  weiglit  of  liindran- 
ces  is  Jiglitened.  The  symptoms  of  a  general  amendment 
in  individuals,  and  the  nations  of  the  world,  wherever  Rev- 
elation is  in  force,  are  numerous  and  undoubted.  The  work 
of  God  not  only  began  at  the  first  dawn  of  Revelation,  and 
received  a  new  impulse  at  the  promulgation  of  the  gospel, 
but  is  still  in  progress  in  the  present  day.  The  spirit  of 
Christianity  is  gaining  more  and  more  an  ascendancy,  in 
proportion  as  the  known  obstacles  are  lessened,  and  by  that 
gradual  process,  in  vvhiqh,  from  the  very  nature  of  the 
means  employed,  the  work  must  be  expected  to  proceed.' 
For  God  puts  in  use,  ordinarily,  no  other  means  than  Iruth, 
persuasion,  example,  accompanied  by  the  secret  influences 
of  grace.  The  progress  of  the  work,  therefore,  will  not 
only  be  gradual,  but  will  be  liable  to  temporary  in- 
terruptions; so  that  at  times  il  may  seem  not  .only  to 
stand  still,  but  even  to  go  back,  as  often  as  particular 
circumstances  in  the  affairs  of  men  raise  up  extraordi- 
nary opposition  to  the  doctrines  or  precepts  of  the  gdspel. 
But  the  progress  upon  the  whole  is  undoubted.  During  the 
last  thirty  years,  the  virtue  of  Christianity  has  been  making 
its  way  strenuously;  it  has  undone  the  mischiefs  of  a  declin- 
ing religion,  and  of  semi-infidelity  in  some  countries;  and 
has  repaired  the  desolations  of  open  unbelief  in  others.  As 
these  obstacles  have  been  removed,  it  has  diffused  a  revived 
sense  of  religion  in  the  Old  and  the  New  World.  It  has 
circulated  Bibles;  sent  forth  missionaries;  set  in  motion  uni- 
versal education;  raised  the  tone  of  public  sentiment;  abol- 
ished many  old  unchristian  practices;  carried  men  on  to- 
wards substantial  happiness. 

Christianity  is  not  an  exhausted  mine;  its  treasures  are  not 
impoverished — they  are  not  even  diminished  by  the  lapse  of 
ages:  but,  like  some  rich  and  extensive,  though  latent,  bed 
of  ore,  it  opens  its  wealth  in  proportion  as  the  oppressive 
hindrances  are  cleared  away;  it  presents  new  veins  on  every 
side  according  as  it  is  explored,  and  retains  all  its  power  of 
rewarding  most  abundantly  the  toil  of  the  workmen. 

(i)    Florsify,  Sermon  xl. 

19 


146  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVIII. 

This  conclusion  is  strengthened  by  considering  that  al- 
most all  the  tendency  ot  our  religion  aiuses  from  PKi.sci- 
PLES  new  to  man,  which  have  worked  themselves  into  confi- 
dence by  the  progress  of  time  and  the  testimony  of  expe- 
rience. The  tendencies  of  reason,  of  virtue,  of  religion  in 
its  general  acceptation,  are  indeed  such  as  men  might  al- 
ways Jiave  expected.  We  understand  the  grounds  on  which 
they  are  constantly  making  tiieir  way  against  the  opposing 
impediments.  But  look  at  Christianity.  Who  amongst 
the  wise  of  this  world  ever  conceived  that  this  new  religion, 
the  scotTof  .the  Greek,  and  the  object,  of  contempt  to  the 
Jew,  contained  in  it  the  principles  of  human  happiness,  the 
only  vital  seeds  of  individual  and  national  improvement! 
Who  at  first  conceived  that  supreme  love  to  one  almighty 
Creator;  confession  of  guilt  and  depravity;  renunciation  of 
any  desert  of  our  own;  reliance  on  the  death  of  the  Son  of 
God,  crucified  as  a  malefactor;  dependance  on  the  agency 
of  the  Holy  Spirit;  humility,  meekness,  and  love  to  our  en- 
emies; submission  of  the  understanding  to  a  Revelation,  in 
many  respects  mysterious  and  incomprehensible;  a  predom- 
inant regard  for  the  favor  of  God  and  the  concerns  of  eter- 
nity;— who  ever  dreamed  that  these,  and  such-like  princi- 
ples, contained  the  germ  of  all  felicity;  when  the  very  terms 
could  not  be  understood  without  difliculty,  and,  when  under- 
stood, conveyed  ideas  in  open  hostility  with  the  intellect- 
ual habits  of  mankindPJ  And  yet  it  is  by  these  principles, 
brought  out  into  action,  that  Christianity  has  been  achiev- 
ing her  triumphs;  and  achieving  them  just  as  the  known 
obstacles,  pride  and  prejudice,  were  overcome.  The  posi- 
tive efllects  of  Christianity,  by  means  of  such  principles,  are 
so  many  declarations  of  the  great  Governor  of  all  in  their 
favor."^  They  prove  that  there  attenc^s  Christianity  some- 
thing more  than  truth,  and  knowledge,  and  persuasion;  that 
there  is  an  oj)eration  of  grace,  secret  to  us,  which  goes 
along  with  it,  and  infuses  into  it  a  virtue  and  bias,  which 
only  retjuires  scope  for  its  development,  to  expand  into  the 
highest  measure  of  individual  and  national  happiness. 

(j)  Bishop  J.  Bird  Sumner.  (k)  Butier. 


LECT.   XVIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  147 

Nor  is  it  a  small  consideration,  in  addition  to  what  we 
have  been  observing,  that  Christianity  has  positively  fore- 
warned ITS  DISCIPLES  OF  the  OBSTACLES  wliich  would  im- 
pede its  progress,  has  Suspended  its  ultimate  success  on  a 
long  series  of  intermediate  struggles,  and  has  especially 
marked  out  the  eastern  and  western  apostacies,  and  the 
power  of  the  delusion  accompanying^them,  as  amongst  its 
chief  hindrances,  permitted  for  the  punishment  of  preced- 
ing unfaithfulness  in  professed  Cliristian  nations.  What 
did  our  liOrd  forewarn  his  followers  in  every  age  to  expect, 
but  persecution,  resistance,  reproach,  perverse  disputations? 
What  are  the  histories  of  the  seven  Asiatic  churches  sketch- 
ed by  the  pen  of  inspiration?  Wliat  is  tlie  apostacy  of  the 
latter  days?  What  the  rnystic  twelve  hundred  years  of  the 
church's  depressed  state, — but  so  many  clues  to  the  laby- 
rinth in  which  we  actually  lind  ourselves?  And  what  can 
prove  a  genuine  tendency  to  human  happiness,  inserted  in 
the  very  fiame-work  of  our  religion,  if  all  these  warnings  do 
not  evince  it?  For  a  system  which  has  been  ^yorking  up 
against  impediments  in  every  age,  and  displaying  its  energy 
in  proportion  as  they  have  been  removed — which  is  doing 
this  now  before  our  eyes,  by  means  of  principles  which,  man 
never  could  have  discovered — and  which  has  foreseen  and 
marked  in  its  own  records  the  opposing  hindrances;  must 
have  received  a  divine  impulse  at  first,  and  must  be  attend- 
ed with  a  divine  operation  now,  which  give.it  the  supernat- 
ural tendency  which  it  displays  towards  the  welfare  of  man. 

Let  us  tlien  consider, 

IV.        The    ultimate    effects    which    CHRfSTIANITY    WILL 
PRODUCE    WHEN    AliL    OBSTACLES    ARE    REMOVED. 

For  if  we  argue,  in  the  case  of  reason,  of  moral  virtue,  or  of 
general  religion,  that  their  several  tendencies  would  rush 
forth  into  full  effects,  if  the  known  hindrances  were  taken 
away;  surely  we  may  infer  in  a  like  manner  concerning 
Christianity,  that,  con-sidering  the  end  it  originally  aimed 
at,  the  obstacles  against  which  it  has  worked,  and  its  sue- 
cess  under  every  variety  of  circumstances,  in  proportion  as 
these  impediments  were  removed — that,  supposing  these  im- 
ediments  all  cleared  away,  it  would  break  forth  like  a  co- 


148  .LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XVllL 

pious  liver,  when  the  dam  is  withdraun,  and  pour  its  rich 
and  abundant  blessings  on  the  whole  liuman  race.  This  is 
the  ultimate  consummation  which  all  jirophecy  foretells,  to- 
wards whicii  the  prayers  and  aspirations  of  Christians  have 
been  in  every  age  directed,  and  the  tendency  to  produce 
which  it  has  been  the  object  of  this  Lecture  to  demon- 
state.  But  sufficient  time  must  be  allowed  for  this  devel- 
opment of  the  ultimate  bearing  of  Christianity;  and  this 
according  to  its  own  scheme — that  is,  the  trial  must  not  be 
a  partial  one,  but  must  have  fair  scope  for  its  operation. 

And  here  it  is,  that  Christianity  shines  forth  in  its  divine 
splendor.  It  is  not,  like  the  works  of  man,  a  brief,  narrow, 
contiguous  design — it  is  a  scheme  connected  with  all  the 
ages  of  this  world,  and  stretching  over  into  eternity.  We 
are  at  present  in  an  incomplete  course  of  things.  We  are 
in  a  system  which  is  only  partially  developed.  We  see 
already  the  strong  tendencies  of  the  religion;  wc  see,  as  the 
hindrances  are  partially  removed,  its  real  power  and  influ- 
ence on  individuals  and  the  aftairs  of  the  world.  But  we 
have  never  yet  seen  its  full  energy.  It  has  never  yet  had 
the  fair  occasion  for  displaying  all  its  innate  virtue  to  be- 
stow temporal  and  spiritual  blessings.  W^e  must  wait. 
How  gradual  is  the  plan  of  the  Almighty  may  be  gathered 
from  the  four  thousand  years  occupied  in  making  room  and 
disposing  the  aftairs  of  the  world,  for  the  establishment  of 
the  gospel.  The  whole  scheme  is  delineated  in  the  pro- 
phetic word.  Slow  and  imperceptible  in  its  progress,  it  is 
still  going  on.  The  real  tendency  of  Christianity  will  at 
length  be  demonstrated,  when,  all  intervening  obstacles  be- 
ing removed,  its  promises  shall  become  facts,  and  its  bud- 
dings and  springings  a  rich  and  fruitful  harvest. 

And  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  all  competent  judges, 
including  adversaries,  admit,  that  if  the  Christian  religion 
were  acted  upon  by  mankind,  the  result  would  be  an  unex- 
ampled degree  of  general  happiness.  Men  of  all  charac- 
ters, even  unbelievers  themselves,  if  we  except  a  few  of  the 
very  grossest;  statesmen  and  legislators  of  all  ages  since 
the  promulgation  of  the  gospel;  philosophers  and  moralists 
of  almost  every  school,  unite    in   their  admissions  of  the 


LECT.    XVll.]        EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  149 

excellent  tendency  of  the  Christian  religion.  Many  of  them 
are  ignorant  of  its  true  principles,  yet  they  allow,  with  one 
consent,  its  beneficial  tendency  upon  states  and  kingdoms — 
they  would  have  all  men  Christians  from  mere  regard  to  the 
peace  of  the  world;  they  admit  that  if  mankind  were  under 
its  practical  guidance,  the  earth  would  present  a  scene  of 
happiness,  such  as  has  never  yet  been  witnessed  nor  con- 
ceived of. 

Of  any  other  religion,  or  pretended  remedy  for  human 
evils,  who  that  understands  the  question,  would  honestly 
wish  for  the  universal  diffusion,  or  would  augur  from  that 
diffusion  universal  happiness?  Who  would  wish  all  mankind 
Epicureans,  Stoics,  Jewish  Pharisees?  Who  would  desire  to 
see  any  form  of  Polytheism  universally  prevalent?  Who 
would  wish  the  whole  human  race  Mahometans?  Who 
would  desire  infidelity  or  human  philosophy  to  establish 
itself  every  where  as  the  sole  guide  of  man?  Conscience 
speaks  plainly  enough  when  such  a  supposition  is  made. 
But  who  that  knows  what  Chistianity  is,  but  would  most 
heartily,  and  from  his  utmost  soul,  desire  (hat  all  the  world 
were  Christians?  Who  does  not  feel  that  Christianity  is 
pregnant  with  tendencies  and  seeds  of  things,  which  want 
only  a  clear  field,  to  turn  the  world  into  a  second  paradise? 

Suppose  only  one  nation  truly  under  the  government  of 
our  holy  faith — imagine  the  individuals  coniposing  it  to  be 
sincere  Christians — suppose  them  to  act  upon  their  princi- 
ples— suppose  the  foundations  of  morals  laid  firmly,  selfish- 
ness subdued,  public  spirit  diflused,  personal  and  domestic 
and  social  virtues  practised,  the  beneficial  principles  of 
Christianity  carried  out  into  act.  Let  all  this  go  on.  I  ask 
what  would,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  the  consequence?' 

Passions  and  selfishness  being  conquered,  men  would  be 
placed  in  the  stations  for  which  from  their  talents  they  were 
really  adapted.  Party-spirit,  faction,  private  ends,  would 
be  unknown.  United  wisdom  would  devise,  and  united 
strength  execute,  every  national  project.  Instead  of  the 
injustice,  the   excess,  the   cruelty,  the   various   crimes  now 

(1)  Butler,  Wilberforce,  A.  Fuller. 


150  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVIII. 

prevalent  among  men,  all  would  be  equity,  temperance, 
kindness,  sympathy,  peace.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a 
nation  in  circumstances  of  such  [)rosperity  as  this  Christian 
spirit  would  disseminate.  Liberty  in  iis  purest  forms,  com- 
mercial enterprise  without  hazardous  speculation,  prudence 
without  covetousness,  active  zeal  and  exertion  without  con- 
tention, honoi  done  to  religion — love  to  his  fellow  creatures 
animating  each  member  of  the  community — virtue  embod- 
ied, or  rather  happiness  itself,  would  be  the  result. 

And  what  would  be  the  relation  of  this  state  with  others9 
United  wisdom  and  united  strength  would  put  in  fear  the 
surrounding  countries.  Craft,  ambition,  private  ends,  cov- 
etousness would  have  little  force  against  such  defences. 
Other  nations  would  court  the  friendship,  rely  on  the  prom- 
ises, engage  in  the  projects  of  this  unexampled  and  singu- 
lar people.  And  how  would  discoveries  be  pushed  all 
around;  beneficial  institutions  formed;  inventions  in  the 
arts  communicated;  religion  diffused! 

Suppose  then,  that  the  whole  world  by  degrees  should 
become  Christians,  partly  by  the  purifying  of  nominal 
Christian  stales,  partly  by  the  conversion  of  the  nations, 
partly  by  the  restoration  of  the  Jews,  partly  by  the  over- 
throw of  the  Mahometan  and  Papal  apostacies, — what  would 
be  the  effect.''  There  would  be  no  idolatry  and  its  abomi- 
nations. There  would  be  no  profaning  the  name  of  God, 
no  perjury,  no  hypocricy,  no  despising  of  those  that  are 
good,  no  arrogance,  ingratitude,  pride,  self-complacency — 
no  murmuring,  sullenness  nor  suicide.  There  would  be  no 
wars,  rivalships,  antipathies,  breaches  of  trust,  strife,  wrongs, 
slanders,  litigations,  deceit,  murder.  In  short,  there  would 
be  none  of  those  streams  of  death,  one  or  more  of  which 
now  flow  through  every  vein  of  society,  and  poison  all  its 
enjoyments.  The  result  would  be,  that  the  world  would 
become  a  scene  of  general  peace  and  prosperity:  and,  abat- 
ing the  chances  and  calamities  to  which  flesh  is  inseparably 
heir,   would  wear  one  unvaried   lace  of  complacency  and 

So  triumphant  is  the  argument  from  the  tendency  of 
Christianity.     Reason  cannot  be  compared  for  a  moment 


LECT.  XVIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  151 

with  Revelation — nor  can  virtue,  nor  natural  religion. 
Good  as  these  are, — strong  as  their  bearings  to  overcome 
the  opposing  forces, — uniformly  as  they  rise  in  proportion 
to  the  rismdval  of  impediments, — still  they  never  can  bless 
fallen  man.  They  are  not  adapted  to  his  actual  state. 
There  is  nothing  to  lead  us  to  hope  for  the  full  triumph  of 
reason  or  its  kindred  principles;  and  should  they  triumph, 
they  would  still  leave  man  needy  and  miserable.  But  the 
prevalence  of  Christianity  is  the  triumph  of  that  vast 
scheme  of  mercy  which  the  Almighty  has  revealed,  to  sup- 
ply the  darkness  of  reason,  to  enlarge  and  purify  moral  vir- 
tue, to  define  and  establish  and  fill  up  natural  religion. 
Christianity,  indeed,  is  iikason  purified — virtue  exalted 

AND  RENDERED  PRACTICAL-^NATURAI.  RELIGION   SUSTAINED    BY 

REDEMPTION.  When  Christianity  triumphs,  it  is  the  victory 
of  the  highest  reason,  of  the  loftiest  and  most  spiritual  vir- 
tue, of  essential  and  unmixed  religion. 

Accordingly  we  find  that  the  tendency  of  Christianity 
towards  the  highest  measure  of  human  happiness,  embraces 
all  the  proofs  which  establish  the  inferior  principles,  and 
adds  many  more  of  her  own;  rises  upon  the  facts  of  all  past 
experience,  and  includes  a  positive  and  continued  exertion 
of  the  divine  power. 

The  force  of  this  entire  argument  may  be  better  judged 
of,  if  we  ask  ourselves,  what  we  should  have  said  if  Chris- 
tianity had  had  a  contrary  tendency  to  that  mn.st  beneficial 
one  which  we  have  demonstrated?  What  should  we  have 
said,  if  the  strong  and  native  bearings  of  the  religion  had 
been  contrary  to  the  temporal  and  spiritual  welfare  of  indi- 
viduals and  nations: — But  we  need  not  make  such  a  sup- 
position. We  have  examples  at  hand.  Let  us  look  around, 
and  we  shall  find  that  every  scheiue  for  guiding  man  in  his 
moral  and  religious  duties,  except  Christianity,  has  that  ac- 
tually pernicious  tendency  to  which  we  have  been  alludin"-. 
Contrast  the  tendencies  of  the  various  offsprings  of  human 
weakness  and  folly,  with  the  lovely  and  salutary  working 
of  Christianity.  Contrasi;  with  Christianity  mere  human 
and  external  restraints.  Constrast  with  it  a  proud  and 
false  philosophy.     Contrast  with  it  a  reliance  on  mere  con- 


152  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.   XVIII. 

science  and  natural  liaht.  Contrast  modern  infidelity.  Con- 
trast the  figments  of  the  political  economist,  and  the 
schemes  of  ditfusing  knowledge  without  religion.  Contrast 
with  it  the  absurd  rules  of  the  law  of  honor,  of  a  mere 
respect  to  fame  and  human  authority,  of  the  notions  of 
chivalry,  as  guides  of  life. 

None  of  these  put  forth  any  distinct  end  bearing  upon 
the  happiness  of  man — none  of- these  fulfil  the  conditions 
by  which  we  demonstrate  a  tendency  towards  the  highest 
welfare  of  mankind.  None  of  these  have  any  facts  to  pro- 
duce: nor  do  they  form  any  distinct  religious  doctrine  pro- 
fessing to  come  from  Almighty  God  for  the  benefit  of  man. 
Even  reason,  virtue,  and  natural  religion,  if  separated  from 
Christianity,  or  placed  in  opposition  to  it,  lose  most  of  their 
beneficial  tendency,  and  utterly  fail  in  their  professed  ob- 
jects. They  are  at  best  only  some  perverted  relics  of  the 
Revelation  originally  made,  and  now  restored  and  enlarged, 
in  the  gospel. 

So  that,  as  we  searched  in  vain,  in  our  last  Lecture,  for 
the  founder  of  a  religion  to  compare  with  our  divine  Sa- 
viour, till  we  dragged  Mahomet  from  his  hiding  place  to  ex- 
pose his  vices  and  deformities,  we  now  search  in  vain  for  a 
religion  to  contrast  with  Christianity  in  its  tcmdencies  upon 
human  happiness,  till  we  descend  into  the  same  gulf,  and 
compel  the  false  prophet  again  to  submit  to  our  examina- 
tion the  bearings  and  native  force  of  his  imposture.  And 
what,  r  ask,  are  the  tendencies  of  this  corruption  of  the 
Christian  doctrine,  this  supplemental  revelation — for  so  it 
pretended  to  be — this  gross  impostuke,  as  it  really  is?  Let 
Europe  and  Asia  testify — let  the  ignorance,  despotism,  vice 
and  misery  of  the  nations  subject  to  its  iron  sway,  declare. 
I  ask  nothing  about  its  proposing  to  itself  the  true  end;  I 
ask  nothing  about  the  facts  of  a  beneficial  nature  which  it 
can  produce.  I  pass  by  all  our  topics;  and  I  contrast  the 
manifest  mischievous  tendency  of  the  whole  religion — of 
its  want  of  adaptation  to  man — of  the  doctrines  and  pre- 
cepts it  enjoins — of  the  rites  it  introduces — of  the  charac- 
ter of  its  founder — of  its  sanguinary  spirit;  of  all  the  points, 
in  short,  to  which  we  have  had  so  frequently  to  allude — and 


LECT.  XVIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  153 

I  say  that  this  deleterious  poison  is  in  direct  opposition  witli 
the  divine  and  healing  tendency  of  the  Christian  faith. 

But,  in  fact,  it  is  only  by  concession  that  we  speak  at  all 
of  the  pretensions  of  human  folly,  I  feel  almost  a  self- 
reproach  in  setting  for  a  moment  reason  or  natural  light,  or 
human  philosophy,  or  infidelity,  or  Mahometanism,  in  con- 
trast with  the  holy  tendencies  of  Christianity.  The  inmost 
soul  of  man  perceives  the  wide  and  immeasurable  distance. 
The  inmost  soul  of  man  feels  that  every  one  of  these  preten- 
ces carries  its  own  condemnation  in  its  mischievous  opera- 
tions. The  inmost  soul  of  man  concludes  that  that  religion 
cannot  but  be  the  true  one,  which  wants  only  to  be  universally 
received,  to  remedy  all  the  evils  that  fill  the  earth,  and  ren- 
der men  as  much  like  holy  and  happy  angels,  as  most  of 
them  are  at  present  like  deceitful,  malignant,  apostate  spir- 
its. The  need  in  which  the  world  stood  of  such  a  remedy, 
its  evident  tendency  to  promote  in  the  highest  degree  the 
true  welfare  of  men,  and  its  actual  efficacy  as  they  rightly 
make  use  of  it,  proclaim  its  divinity  in  the  most  decisive 
manner,  even  ai)art  from  miracles,  llie  fulfilment  of  pro- 
phecy, and  all  other  external  marks  whatever.  ^ 

But  I  go  too  far  in  saying  this.  JMy  argument  requires  a 
confirmation  only,  not  a  proof.  The  proper  evidences  of 
our  religion  have  already  been  established.  It  is  only  as 
an  additional  and  subsidiary  argument,  that  I  adduce  the 
tendency  of  our  holy  faith.  Yes,  Christianity  has  the  stamp 
of  God  upon  it.  Every  Lecture  upon  its  internal  character, 
opens  new  fields  of  contemplation,  and  lays  new  grounds 
of  confidence,  as  the  constitution  and  framework  of  the 
religion  is  more  and  more  developed. 

But  I  pause.  I  leave  the  general  subject.  I  entreat  each 
one  before  me  to  apply  it  individually  to  his  own  heart.  I 
appeal  to  every  candid  and  serious  mind.  What  is  the  ten- 
dency of  the  Christian  religion?  What  is  the  incontrovert- 
ible force  of  the  argument  derived  from  it?  What  would 
it  make  you,  your  children,  your  fiimily,  if  allowed  its  full 
power? 

(m)  Scotl. 

20 


154  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XVUI. 

1.  Let  each  one,  then,  ask  himself,  what  is  the  ten- 
dency OF  MY  Christianity?  What  is  the  influence  and 
virtue  which  in  my  case  it  exeits?  What  force  does  my 
faith,  my  love,  my  obedience,  put  lorth,  to  promote  in  the 
highest  degree  the  temporal  and  spiritual  welfare  of  those 
around  nic? 

Let  each  one  remember  that  the  grand  practical  objec- 
tion to  Christianity  is  derived  from  the  unholy  lives  of 
PROFESSED  Christians.  Men  will  not  distinguish,  as  they 
ought,  the  bearings  of  a  religion  in  its  self  and  when  duly 
received,  from  the  lives  and  spirit  of  those  who  ever  so 
slightly  and  imperfectly  hold  by.it.  The  world  looks  to 
names  rather  than  things;  and  seeing  too  many  nominal 
believers  as  vain  and  treacherous,  as  cruel  and  proud,  as 
dishonest  and  covetous,  as  profane  and  wicked,  as  others; 
they  rashly  conclude  that  all  opinions  are  of  secondary  im- 
portance, that  a  man  may  believe  what  he  likes,  and  that  a 
moral  life  is  a]l  that  the  great  Creator  demands  of  him. 
Base  and  fatal  inference!  Let  your  lives,  brethren,  go  to 
undeceive  a  misguided  world.  Show  them  the  genuine  ten- 
dencies of  Christianity.  Let  them  see  in  your  spirit  and 
temper  the  true  effects  of  reliance  upon  Christ,  of  humility 
and  self-denial,  of  subjection  to  the  influences  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  of  separation  from  the  love  and  the  vain  pursuits  of 
the  world,  of  good- will  and  forgiveness  of  injuries,  of  a 
hope  and  expectation  of  heaven,  of  a  zeal  for  the  glory  of 
Christ  and  the  propagation  of  his  gospel,  of  an  habitual 
regard  and  preparation  for  eternity.  Let  them  see  Chris- 
tianity embodied  in  its  true  virtue  in  your  persons,  in  order 
that  they  may  be  led  to  a  consideration  of  its  nature  and 
authority. 

Let  each  one  roll  away  the  reproach  falsely  cast  upon 
the  Christian  religion,  so  far  as  he  is  concerned.  Let  every 
one  consider  t!ie  honor  of  God  as  committed  to  his  custody. 

Open,  then,  your  hearts,  my  friends,  and  especially  my 
young  friends,  to  receive  the  heavenly  doctrine!  Welcome 
the  gospel!  Let  it  have  free  course  in  you.  Oppose 
not  its  mighty  and  sacred  tendencies.  Whatever  obstacles 
to  it  exist  in  your  principles,  your  habits,  your  pursuits, 


LECT.   XVIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  155 

remove  them  out  of  the  way.  Take  up  the  Holy  Bible:  let 
it  work  its  work  upon  you.  Remove  the  interposing  hin- 
drances; God  will  elTectually  help  those  that  call  upon  him. 
-  2.  And  when  Christianijty  has  had  its  due  operation  upon 
your  own  hearts,  one  of  the  first  effects   will  be,  that  you 

WILL     BE    ANXIOUS     TO    SHEW     ITS      HOLY      TENDENCY    in     yOUf 

family,,  in  your  neighborhood.  Strive  to  take  away  and  les- 
sen stumbling-blocks.  Unite  in  those  great  religious  insti- 
tutions which  cast  a  brilliant  light  over  a  nation,  and  shed 
their  glory  through  the  Heathen  and  Mahomedan  countries. 
Never  does  the  genuine  bearing  of  Christianity  appear  more 
attractive,  than  in  self-denying  schemes  of  benevolent  ac- 
tivity, which  have  no  other  object  than  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  honor  of  religion  and  the  good  of  souls.  The 
working  of  such  institutions  upon  the  public  opinion  of  a 
nation,  the  tendency  they  have  to  unite  a  people  in  the 
more  ardent  pursuit  of  personal  piety,  the  sway  they  exer- 
cise over  thousands  who  might  never  otherwise  have  attend- 
ed to  the  gospel,  the  hope  they  furnish  of  a  further  revival 
of  religion,  and  of  the  divine  blessing  and  favor  upon  gov- 
ernments, churches,  nations, — render  them  amongst  the 
most  important  and  promising  signs  of  the  present  times. 

3.  Finally,  PKAY  Foa  the  copious  influences  of  grace, 
and  the  co-operating  aids  of  an  almighty  providence  to 
hasten  on  the  blessed  period,  foretold  in  the  prophetic 
page,  when  the  tendencies  of  guristiamty  shall  be- 
come effects;  when  the  highest  welfare  and  happiness  of 
individuals  and  nations  shall  be  actually  accomplii>hed.  The 
ordinary  assistances  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  never  wanting 
to  the  church.  The  innate  power  and  virtue  of  Christian- 
ity depends  on  these  assistances.  All  the  bearing  and 
struggling  of  doctrine  and  precepts  and  ministerial  exhorta- 
tion and  example,  and  the  labors  of  the  spiritual  church, 
would  be  in  vain,  witiiout  that  animating  power  of  the 
Spirit,  which,  like  the  principle  of  life  in  the  works  of 
nature,  gives  virtue  and  fruitfulness  to  the  means  employed. 
Christianity  is  never  to  be  separated  from  the  constant  op- 
eration of  its  divine  Author.  But,  besides  these  usual  mea- 
sures of  grace,  there    have  been,   in   various    ages  of  the 


156.  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XVIU. 

church,  peculiar  cfTusions  of  the  influences  of  the  Spirit;  a 
general  rekindling  of  the  holy  fire  has  taken  place;  minis- 
ters and  people  have  been  raised  up  to  call  a  sleeping 
world  to  its  true  interests;  Christianity  has  been  vindicated 
from  its  false  friends  and  its  torpid  and  selfish  adherents; 
its  native  doctrines  have  been  asserted;  the  power  of  God 
has  been  humbly  implored;  the  offices  of  parochial  minis- 
tration have  received  a  new  impulse:  the  sacraments,  the 
public  prayers,  the  reading  and  preaching  of  God's  word 
have  been  revived  in  their  first  freshness;  souls  have  been 
converted  in  large  numbers;  bodies  of  spiritual  and  faithful 
believers  have  been  raised  up;  the  holy  lives  and  active  ex- 
ertions of  Christians  have  discovered  fresh  means  for  pro- 
pagating the  gospel;  all  has  assumed   a  new  appearance. 

Such  was  the  revival  vouchsafed  at  the  time  of  the  blessed 
Reformation;  fresh  showers  of  grace  were  granted  in  a  co- 
pious measure,  and  half  Europe  awoke  at  the  call  of  truth. 

We  need  a  similar  gift  of  the  divine  mercy  now  to  bring 
on  the  future  glories  of  the  church;  to  give  the  operations 
of  Christianity  their  full  play;  to  remove  interposing  obsta- 
cles; to  bind  Satan,  the  great  spiritual  adversary,  and  turn 
the  tendencies  of  our  religion  into  ONE  grand  result.  All 
is  moving  towards  this  blessed  end.  Cliristianity  has  in  it- 
self all  the  innate 'Causes  of  the  salvatiori  of  the  world;  the 
prophetic  word  encourages  our  hopes;  the  close  of  the 
mystic  period  of  the  apostacies  of  the  east  and  west  ap- 
proaches. Lift  iqy  your  heads,  then,  my  Cliristian  breth- 
ren, for  your  redemption  draweth  nigh.  All  events  in 
the  world  and  in  the  church  seem  to  conspire  to  this 
consummation.  And,  as  the  great  principle  of  gravita- 
tion in  the  works  of  creation,  is  drawing  all  matter  to- 
wards the  sun,  the  centre-object  of  the  system,  around 
which,  so  far  as  intervening  obstacles  allow,  every  thing  is 
revolving;  whilst  no  part  is  unaftectcd  with  the  secret  bias 
impressed  on  universal  nature  by  the  hand  of  the  Creator; 
so  is  every  thing  gravitating,  in  the  events  of  providence 
and  the  dealings  of  grace,  towards  the  Sun  of  llighteousy 
ness,  the  great  centre-object,  around  which  all  is  moving, 
so  far  as  interposing   hindrances   permit;  whilst  nothing  is 


LECT.    XVin.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  157 

exempt  from  the  secret  tendency  impressed  on  things  by 
the  merciful  will  of  our  gracious  God;  nor  will  the  opera- 
tion cease  till  all  revolve  around  the  glorious  source  of  light 
and  salvation;  and,  drawing  warmth  and  life  from  his  imme- 
diate beams,  display,  through  eternity,  his  glory,  as  the 
only  source  of  all  their  irradiation  and  all  their  joy. 


LECTURE   XIX. 


THE  TEST  TO  WHICH  EVERY  ONE  MAY  BRING 
THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION, 
BY  HUMBLY  SUBIMITTING  TO  ITS  DIRECTONS, 
AND  MAKING  A  TRIAL  FOR  HIMSELF  OF  ITS 
PROMISED  BLESSINGS. 

1     JOHX    V.     10. 

He  (hat    believeth    on    the    Son    of    God,  hath  the  witness  in 

himself. 

It  may  naturally  be  asked,  after  all  we  have  said  in  our 
former  Lectures  on  the  divine  excellency  and  holy  effects 
of  the  Christian  doctrine,  whether  there  is  any  way  in  which 
a  sincere  inquirer  may  bring  to  the  test  of  his  own  observa- 
tion the  truth  of  some  of  these  statements— whether  he  can- 
not rise  above  a  mere  conviction  of  truth,  to  an  experience 
and  perception  of  the  blessings  proffered  by  Christianity. 

To  this  question  we  answer,  that  he  may,  and  that  the 
design  of  these  Lectures  is  in  a  great  measure  lost,  unless 
he  actually  receive  for  himself  the  heavenly  benefit,  and 
possess  in  his  own  breast  the  most  forcible  of  all  evidences, 
that  arising  from  the  inward  power  and  truth  of  religion  in 
fuUiling  its  promises.  For  we  hesitate  not  to  assert,  that 
the  internal  perception  of  the  blessings  of  Revelation,  is  the 


LECT.    XIX.  J  EVIDENCES     OF     CHRISTIANITY.  15& 

most  satisfactory  of  all  reasons  to  the  mind  of  the  sincere 
believer,  and  is  capable  of  being  so  certified  by  nuinerous 
and  undoubted  testimonies;  to  others,  as  to  invite  tliem  to 
make  a  similar  experiment,  and  seek  for  and  obtain  the  like 
conviction. 

To  this  division  of  our  subject  we  approach  as  by  far  the 
most  important,  practically  speaking,  of  all  that  we  have 
treated,  ttecaus'e  it  brings  us  directly  to  the  end  of  the  Rev- 
elation, the  salvation  of  our  souls. 

And  may  it  please  God  by  his  Holy  Spirit  so  to  assist  us 
in  opening  this  great  topic,  that  it  may  conduce  to  the  glory 
•of  his  holy  name  and  the  establishment  of  our  faith  in  the 
divine  authority  of  his  gospel! 

Let  us  then  in  the  present  Lecture  stale  the  nature  of 
this  argument — its  authokity  from  holy  Scripture— the 
FACTS  by  which  it  is  sustained,  and  the  singular  impor- 
tance of  the  proof  educed.  In  the  following  Lecture,  we 
shall  proceed  to  offer  some  directions  to  those  wiio  are  de- 
sirous of  entering  upon  the  inquiry. 

L  We  first  consider  the  natuke  of  the  argument.  I 
address  the  young,  the  uninformed,  the  inquiring,  the  seri- 
ous; and  I  say  that  as  Christianity  is  in  -so  many  parts  of  it 
a  practical  thing-^a  remedy  to  be  applied  to  cur  moral  mal- 
adies— of  course  it  is  capable,  in  these  respects,  of  being 
known,  just  as  any  other  practical  matter  may  be  known. 

For  what  is  Christianity?  Ls.it  a  revelation  of  abstract 
truths?  Is  it  a  theorem  of  mathematical  scieiice?  Is  it  a 
discovery  in  any  of  the  branches  of  metaphysics?  If  it  were, 
there  could  then,  indeed,  be  no  internal  test  of  its  benefits. 
But  Christianity  is  none  of  these  things.  Nor  is  it  a  mere 
system  of  speculative  o[iinions  about  religion,  like  those  of 
the  diflferent  sects  of  philosophers.  If  it  were,  it  would  then 
also  admit  of  no  practical  experiment — we  might  grow  old, 
as  they  did,  in  disputation;  and  at  last  lie  down  to  die  in 
uncertainty. 

Nor,  again,   is  it   merely  a   pure   code  of  morality,   with 

certain  doctrines  attached   to  it.       In  this  case  likewise,  an 

appeal  to   an   inward  observation   of  its  excellency  in    the 

heart,  might  be  out  of  the  question.     The  morality  might 

*• 


160  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XIX. 

be  common,  or  nearly  so,  to  many  who  reject,  as  well  as  to 
those  who  receive,  the  religion.  Accordingly,  those  who 
consider  Christianity  as  chiefly  a  code  of  morals,  overlook 
or  despise  this  argument  frona  experience. 

Or,  again,  if  the  effects  of  Christianity  were  to  take  place 
exclusively  in  a  future  state,  and  did  not  touch  on  any  of 
the  intervening  circumstances  of  man,  we  could  not,  in -this 
life,  have  that  personal  conviction  of  which  we  are  about  to 
treat. 

But  if  Christianity  be,  as  it  is,  an   actual  deliverance  of 
man  from   the   greatest  moral  evils — if  it  be  a  deliverance 
from  ignorance,  the  slavery  of  sin,  the  bondage  of  disorder- 
ed appetite,  the  alienation  of  the  heart  from  God,  the  guilt 
and  terror  of  an  accusing  conscience,  and  the  fearful  appre- 
hensions of  death  and  eternal  judgment — if  Christianity  illu- 
minate the  understanding,  renew  the  affections,  bestow  the 
joy  of  pardon  and  acceptance  with  God,  enkindle  an  ardent 
desire  after  holiness,  and   raise  up  the   soul   to   the  love  of 
Christ — if  Christianity  inspire  a  delight  in   spiritual  things, 
a  superiority  to  this  world,  an  anticipation  of  the  glories  of 
another — if,  further,  Christianity  reveal  a  divine  Saviour  and 
a  sanctifying  Spirit  ns  the  objects  of  trust,  reliance,  expec- 
tation— if,  as   a   conseqirence  of  all   tiiis,  Christianity  carry 
on  its  front  a   promise   of  tlie  grace  of  the   Holy  Spirit  to 
them  that  sue   fur   it — if  it  declare  that  God   will  hoar  the 
pravers  and  satisfy  tl>e  desires  of  them  that  seek  him — if  it 
promise  to  calm  the  conscience,  to  sustain  the  heart  under 
affliction,  to    strengthen   with   internal  might   tlie   fainting 
spirit,  and  heal  all  the  diseases  and  sicknesses  of  the   soul; 
— 'if  all  this,  and  much  more,  be  actually  promised  by  Chris- 
tianity, then  of  course  something  of  it  will  be  known  and 
observed  in  our  own  hearts,  in  proportion  as  we   obey  the 
gospel — then  something  of  this  divine  glory  and  efficacy  of 
truth  will  be  perceived  and  felt,  not  surely  by  those  who  do 
not,  but  by  those  who  do,  make  a  trial  for  themselves,  and 
bring  to  the  test  of  experience  this  part  of  tlie  pretensions 
of  Revelation. 

And  an  argument  drawn   from  such  experience  is  by  no 
means  in  contradiction  to  the  external  or  internal  proofs  of 


LECT.  XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  161 

Christianity,  but  in  addition  to  them;  something  which  goes 
further;  something  which  confirms  them;  something  of  a 
different  and  much  higher  kind,  increasing  the  persuasion 
of  the  trutli  to  those  who  are  in  possession  of  other  argu- 
ments, and  supplying  their  place  to  those  who  are  not. 
The  evidences  of  Christianity  are  one  thing;  the  experi- 
ence and  trial  of  its  blessings  are  another.  Nothing,  indeed, 
but  the  extraordinary  perversion  of  human  nature  could 
make  this  matter  at  all  questionable. 

How  do  men  act  in  other  practical  cases."*  A  celebrated 
preservative  against  poisons,  Mithridate,  is  still  in  use.  It 
took  its  name  from  its  inventor,  the  king  of  Pontus,  whose 
history  is  so  well  known  in  the  records  of  Ancient  Rome.* 
The  medicine  is  common  in  every  part  of  the  civilized 
world.  The  receipt  is  said  to  have  been  found  in  the  cab- 
inet of  Mithridates,  written  with  his  own  hand,  and  to  have 
been  carried  to  Rome  by  Pompey.  It  was  translated  into 
verse  by  a  famous  physician,  named  Damocrates,  and  hence 
called  Confectio  Damocratis;  and  v\as  afterwards  translated 
byGalen,"^  from  whom  it  has  come  down  to  our  days."^ 

Now  it  is  clearly  one  thing  for  a  critic  to  arrange  the  ex- 
ternal and  internal  evidences  of  this  preparation,  to  vindi- 
cate the  claims  of  its  inventor,  to  trace  its  transmission  from 
one  affe  to  another,  to  discuss  the  various  elements  of  which 
it  is  composed  (it  consists  of  a  great  variety  of  drugs,)  and 
to  reply  to  the  objections  which  migJit  be  raised  upon  all 
these  points;  and  it  is  quite  another  thing  for  a  sick  person 
to  make  a  trial  himself  of  its  efficacy,  by  applying  it  as  a 
remedy  in  his  own  case. 

Such  is  the  difference  between  the  external  evidences  of 
Christianity,  and  the  actual  trial  of  its  virtues,  to  which  I  am 
now  inviting  the  sincere  inquirer. 

Or,  to  take  another  example,  about  two  centuries  since, 
the  Jesuits  in  Peru  succeeded  in  curing  the  Countess  del 
Cinchon,   the  lady  of  a   Spanish   Viceroy,  of  a  dangerous 

(a)  He  died  about  sixty-four  years  before  the  Chrlslicin  cnra. 

(b)  Who  died  about  A.  D.  201. 

(c)  Chambers  in  A.  Fuller;  Rees;  the  Panlalogia  in  voce  fllithridatium. 

21 


162  LKCTURES  ON  THK  [lECT»  XIX. 

fever,  by  means  of  the  medicinal  preparation  now  so  well 
known  by  the  name  of  Peruvian  bark,  tiie  use  of  which  had 
long  been  familiar  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  American  con- 
tinent. This  first  brought  the  celebrated  medicine  (cinchona 
is  the  technical  name)  into  reputation.  A  Jesuit,  in  the  year 
1649,  imported  a  considerable  quantity  of  it  into  Italy, 
which  was  distributed  by  the  fathers  of  that  order.  Its  fame 
spread.  It  long  remained  a  lucrative  tirtiele  of  commerce 
to  the  Jesuits.  It  encountered  considerable  opposition  at 
first  from  the  regular  practitioners  of  medicine.  It  con- 
quered all  resistance.  Its  use  has  extended  and  its  reputa- 
tion has  been  increasing  to  the  present  day;  so  that  it  is  now 
universally  esteemed  as  one  of  the  most  safe  and  powerful 
remedies  in  various  classes  of  diseases.'' 

Now  a  modern  reasoner  might  t^ke  it  into  his  head  to  ob- 
ject to  the  authenticity  of  this  origin  of  the  medicine;  he 
might  allege  that  the  preparation,  as  it  is  vended  in  Eu- 
rope, had  passed  through  so  many  hands  before  it  reached 
his,  and  that  there  was  so  much  uncertainty  about  it,  that 
no  dependance  could  be  placed  upon  it,  and  that  it  had 
better  be  rejected  altogether  from  the  list  of  remedies.  But 
of  what  account  would  such  objections  be  in  the  estimation 
of  him  who  could  reply,  "I.have  tried  the  bark,  I  have  found 
it  to  be  effectual,  ^and  that  under  a  disease  which  threat- 
ened my  life,  and  when  all  oiher  means  failed.  I  know 
nothing  of  the  historical  objections,  nor  the  answers  to 
them;  this  I  know,  I  was  near  to  death — I  took  the  medi- 
cine— it  restored  me  to  health  and  comfort." 

Such  is  the  nature  of  the  argument,  so  far  as  any  illustra- 
tions can  explain  it;  for  the  historical  evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  miraculous  attestations  to  it,  its  supernatural 
propagation,  and  internal  excellency,  are  inconceivably  su- 
perior to  any  thing  that  can  occur  as  to  the  tradition  of 
human  medicines.  In  like  manner,  then,  we  appeal  to 
facts  and  experience  in  the  case  before  us.  We  assert  that 
Christianity  is  the  medicine  of  the  mind;  we  assert  that  the 
disease  for  which  it  is  a  specific  is  sin,  and  its  consequence 

{<])  Rces,  ami  rnnialogia — sul^  voc.  Cinchoiui. 


LECT.    XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  1 G3 

spiritual  death;  we  assert  that  the  ejects  of  this  divine  rem- 
edy are  tiie  recovery  of  spiritual  health,  pardon,  and  holi- 
ness; we  assert  tiiat  the  validity  of  these  eflects  is  estab- 
lislved  by  universal  experience;  we  assert  that  this  is  a  test 
to  which  every  one  may  bring  the  truth  of  this  part  of  the 
revealed  doctrine;  we  assert  that  this  inward  witness,  while 
it  is  an  indirect  evidence  to  others,  is  a  most  positive  and 
conclusive  one  to  the  Christian's  own  heart,  an  evidence 
which  supersedes  all  long  chains  of  argument,  and  speaks 
by  its  intrinsic  virtue. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  consider — 

II.  The  SCllIPT-URAL  AUTHORITY  ON  WHICH  THIS  ARGU- 
MENT RESTS. 

For  having  established  the  truth  of  Christianity  by  its 
proper  external  eviden(ies,  and  these  evidences  being  sup- 
posed to  be  known,  our  concern  in  all  these  lectures,  on  the 
interna!  and  subsidiary  proofs,  is  to  trace  out  what  the  Bi- 
ble itself  declares  of  the  nature  of  the  Revelation,  and  thus 
to  show  the  excellency  of  its  discoveries,  and  their  bearings 
upon  man. 

1.  What,  then,  do  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  declare 
on  this  subject?  Do  they  propose  any  thing  in  a  way  of 
trial  or  inward  witness  of  tlie  truth  of  Christianity?  Un- 
doubtedly they  do.  At  the  very  entrance  on  the  heavenly 
way,  this  promise  stands  prominent.  Ask,  and  it  shall  be 
given  you:  if  yc,  being  eail,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
yoiLr  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  heavenly  Father  give 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him'?''  Then  if  any  one 
•  asks  and  receives,  he  has  a  proof,  in  his  own  case,  that 
Christianity  is  so  far  true.  So  when  our  Lord  says.  If  any 
man  ivill  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  v:hether 
it  be  of  God,  or  whether  1  speak  of  myself;^  he  submits,  as 
it  were,  the  truth  of  Jiis  religion  to  this  criterion.  The  apos- 
tle Paul  does  the  same,  when  he  declares  the  excellency 
and  glory  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  and  that  the  perception 
of  that  excellency  by  his  converts  distinguishes  them  from 
those  whose  eyes  Satan,  the   great  adversary,  has  blinded. 

(o)  Luke  xi.  9-11.  C")  Jolm  vii.  17. 


1G4  LECTURES    ON    THE  [i.ECT.     XIX. 

—  Godf  ivho  commanded  the  Ui!;ht  to  shine  oni  of  darkness, 
hath  shincd  in  our  hearts,  to  ifive  the  light  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  glory  of  Ciod,  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ; — so  that 
the  rising  of  the  n:itur;il  sun  after  a  dark  night,  is  not  more 
perceptible  than  the  shining  of  Christ,  the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness, into  the  mind. — If,  therefore,  our  gospel  be  hid,  the 
aposle  argues,  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost,  in  ichom  the 
god  of  this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them  which  be- 
lieve not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel  of  Christ,  who 
is  the  image  of  God,  should  shine  unto  them.^ 

2.  But,  in  tlie  next  pUice,  remark  that  throughout  the 
BIBLE,  in  tlie  Old  Testament  as  well  as  the  New,  it  is  as- 
serted that  there  is  an  actual  observation  of  certain  effects 
upon  the  hearts  of  those  who  seek  after  truth,  to  which 
others  are  strangers.  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  tvith 
them  that  fear  him,  and  he  will  shojiv  them  his  covenant.^  The 
meek  will  he  guide  in  judgment,  and  the  meek  will  he  teach  his 
way}  The  entrance  of  thy  word  giveth  light,  it  giveth  under- 
standing unto  the  simple)  The, statutes  of  the  Lord  are  more  to 
be  desired  than  gold,  yea  than  much  fine  gold;  sweeter  also 
than  honey  and  the  honeycomb.^  Came  and  hear  all  ye  that 
fear  God,  and  I  ivill  declare  what  he  hath  done  for  my  soid}  O 
taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  {roodJ^ 

AVhat  is  the  import  of  these  and  similar  passages?  Do 
they  not  proceed, on  the  supposition  that  Revelation  com- 
municates spiritual  blessings,  spiritual  perceptions  of  excel- 
lency— something  that  resembles  light,  something  that  is 
sweet  as  honey  to  the  taste,  something  that  guides  and 
teaches  man  and  shows  him  the  divine  covenant.''  And  are 
not  these  tilings  promised  to  those  that  fear  God,  to  the 
meek  and  lowly;  that  is,  to  all  the  real  disciples  of  the  re- 
ligion.' And  are  not  these  things  promised  as  a  test,  which 
all  are  invited  to  make;  which  the  wicked  neither  under- 
stand nor  seek  after;  but  which  is  consigned  as  a  secret  to 
those  who  fear  God.'^ 


(g)  2  Cor.  iv.  3—6.  (h)  Psalm  x.xv.  14.  (i)  Psalm  xxv.  9. 

(j)  Psalm  cxix.  130.         (k)  Psalm  xix.  10.  11.      (1)  Psalm  Ixvi.  16 
(m)  Psalm  xxxiv.  8. 


LECT.     XIX.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 


165 


3.  But  observe,  further,  the  appeals  which  the  apos- 
tles coNTiNUALLvr  make  TO  THEIR  CONVERTS,  as  to  their 
experience  of  the  effects  which  Christianity  had  produced 
upon  them;  notice  liow  they  speak,  not  only  of  miraculous 
gifts  communicated,  but  a  moral  change  produced,  spiritual 
blessings  and  joys  perceived,  a  transition  mighty  as  from 
death  to  life,  experienced;  and  these  appeals  occur  with 
frequency  and  familiarity,  quite  as  things  known  and  indis- 
putable. 

.  You  hath  he  quickened,  who  ivere  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.^ 
Who  hath  delivered  ns  from  the  power  of  darkness,  and  hath 
translated  us  into  the  kingdom  of  his  dear  Son.'^  Ye  ivere  some- 
times darkless,  but  now  af'e  ye  light  in  the  Lord.^  Such  were 
some  of  you,  {adulterers,  thieves,  covetous,  ^c.)  but  ye  are  wash- 
ed, but  ye  are  sanctified,  but  ye  are  justified  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God.'^  We  are 
his  tvorkmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works. ^ 
Mighty  changes  these;  but  consisting  of  a  divine  and  spirit- 
ual transformation,  supposed  to  be  known  and  felt  by  the 
converts. 

4.  Further,  the  necessity  of  an  expekience  and  inward 

PERCEPTION      OF     RELIGION    IS     EXPRESSLY    INSISTED     ON.       Bt 

not  conformed  to  this  world,  but  be  ye  transformed  by  the  re- 
newing of  your  mind,  that  ye  may  prove  (experience,  prac- 
tically bring  to  the  test,)  ivhat  is  that  good  and  acceptable 
and  perfect  will  of  GodJ — Again, \Be/7/^  justified  by  faith,  we 
have  peace  with  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  by 
whom  also  we  have  access  by  faith  into  this  grace,  ivherein  we 
stand  and  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.  And  not  only 
so,  but  we  glory  in  tribulations  also;  knowing  that  tribidation 
worketh  patience,  and  patience  experience,  and  experience 
hope.'^ — Once  more,  and  this  I  pray,  that  your  love  may 
abound  yet  more  and  more  in  knowledge  and  in  all  judg- 
ment," (cih^^cei,  perception,  experience;) — Further,  jlsneio- 
born  babes,  desire  the  sincere  mi  Ik  of  the  word,  that  ye  may 
grow  thereby,  if  so  be  ye  have  tasted  that  the  Lord  is  gra- 
cious.'' 

(n)  Epii.  ii.  L        (o)  Col.  i.  13.  (p)  Eph.  v.  8.  (q)  1    Cor.  vi.  9-II. 

(r)  Eph.ii.  10.      (s)  Ron).xii.2.        (t)Roni.  v.  1—5.  (u)  Phil.  i.  9,  10. 

(v)  1  Pet.  ii.2,3. 


166  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.   XIX. 

5.  Moreover,  this    testimony  is  broadly  asserted  to 

BELONG    TO    EVERY     ONE    THAT      RECj|:iVES    THE      GOSPEL.       He 

that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath  the  witness  in  himself.'' 
The  Spirit  itself  bearcth  witness  with  ovr  spirits  that  we  are  the 
children  of  God.^  If  amj  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he 
is  none  of  his  J 

6.  In  fact,  the  whole  end  of  Christianity  is  to  pro- 
duce this  divine  and  moral  transformation,  this  secret  and 
internal  obedience  to  the  truth,  to  be  proved  by  its  appro- 
priate fruits  in  the  life  and  conducts  Other  parts  of  the 
evidences  of  Christianity  lead  to  this  end,  but  this  part  is 
the  end  itself  Christianity  never  was  intended  for  specula- 
tion or  disputation,  but  for  practical  use.  It  is  for  this  pur- 
pose only  that  it  touches  on  high  and  mysterious  points.  It 
makes  elcrnity  act  upon  time.  It  shakes  one  world  by  the 
terrors  of  another.  Where  this  efiicacy  is  not  felt,  the 
Revelation  fails  of  its  object;  where  it  is,  Christianity  has 
so  far  achieved  its  purpose,  and  goes  on  to  build  up  the 
convert  in  his  most  holy  faith. 

'  7.  Accordingly,  this  personal  reception  of  the  divine 
grace  is  the  peculiar  testimony  which  goes  along  with 
the  gospel  in  the  ordinary  state  of  the  church.  It  attended 
it  even  when  the  miraculous  powers  and  the  prophetical  in- 
spiration first  surrounded  the  infant  cause  of  truth.  But 
the  Holy  Ghost  producing  these  transforming  effects,  is  the 
main  and  continued  vvil^ness  for  Christ  from  age  to  age. 
"Therefore  ungodly  persons,"  says  a'  celebrated  divine, 
"have  a  great  disadvaiUage  in  handling  this  subject  of  the 
evidences  of  Christianity;  beC|ause,  holding  by  tlie  religion 
.only  bv  external  proofs,  they  do  not  reach  the  most  persua- 
sive evidence  of  her  truth.  For  the  spirit  of  renovation, 
sanctification,  and  illumination,  assimilating  the  soul  to 
Christ  and  heaven,  is  the  continued  witness  to  Christianity 
to  all  true  believers,  even  as  the  rational  soul  of  a  child  is 
the  inherent  witness  or  evidence  that  he  is  born  of  rational 
parents.'"  ^ 

(w)  I  Joliii  V.  10.         (x)  Rom.  viii.  If).        (y)  Rom.  viii.  9.         (z)  Ba.\icr. 


LECT.   XIX.]  EV^IDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  167 

But  the  case  is  too  plain  to  every  pious  mind  to  warrant 
so  much  detail.  However,  those  for  whom  I  am  now  most 
concerned,  and  to  whose  apprehensions  I  am  anxious  to 
bring  down  this  grand  practical  argument,  the  nature  and 
scriptural  authority  for  which  I  have  been  establishing, 
cannot  be  too  strongly  pressed  on  such  a  point,  Jet  us  con- 
sider, as  we  proposed — 

III.  The  facts  by  which  Tins  argument  is  sustained. 

How  stands  the  case  as  a  matter  of  fact?  What  do  men 
most  competent  to  spexik  declare.^  Do  they  testify,  or  do 
they  not,  tiiat  they  find  this  inward  witness  to  the  truth  of 
Christianity?     What  are  the  phenomena  in  real  life.'^ 

In  appealing  to  this  criterion,  v.c  have  a  great  advantage 
in  the  present  day.  It  has  long  been  agreed  on  all  hands, 
that  in  practical  questions  ma.ttcrs  of  fact  are  to  be  mainly 
attended  to.  The  whole  philosophy  of  Bacon,  Newton, 
and  their  illustrious  followers,  rests  on  this  one  principle, 
that  nature  is  to  be  trace.d  out.  investigated,  cautiously  fol- 
lowed; that  we  know  nothing  but  as  fact  and  observation 
demonstrate  things;  that -hypothesis  and  theory  and  objec- 
tions are  of  no  force  against  undoubted  experiment,  from 
which  alone  we  are  to  infer,  by  cautious  induction,  the  gen- 
eral laws  of  nature.  It  is  the  same,  so  far  as  the  case  will 
allow,  in  the  philosophy  of  mind;  tiie  phenomena  only  are 
attended  to.  The  intyllcclual  and  active  powers,  their  rela- 
tionsj  their  objects,  the  laws  by  which  they  operate,  are  to 
be  deduced  from  experiments  carefully  conducted,  reported 
wiih  fidelity,  compared  with  each  other  Jn  a  sufficient  vari- 
ety of  cases,  and  distinguished  from  hasty,  partial,  incon- 
clusive observations,  by  their  .proper  eflects.  Hypothesis, 
opinion,  abstract  reasonings,  are  of  no  avail  against  well- 
established  phenomena. 

On  these  principles  of  common  sense  we  are  acting  every 
day.  Are  the  objects  of  our  inquiry  things  without  us.'' 
— we  judge  by  the  sensible  phenomena,  by  the  tangible 
results  of  external  experience.  Are  the  objects  of  inquiry 
things  within  us? — we  judge  by  internal  observation,  by  in- 
ward consciousness,  by  what  passes  in  the  interior  theatre 
of  the  mind,  attested  by  its  proper  fruits.     In  each  case  we 


168  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XIX. 

accumulate  experiments,  and  conclude  only  after  a  sufficient 
number  of  clear  and  well-attested  trials  has  united  in  brinw- 
ing  out  the  same  results. 

Ail  our  knowledge  comes  originally  from  these  two 
sources — the  examination  of  things  without  us,  by  the 
medium  of  the  senses;  and  the  examination  of  things  with- 
in us,  by  internal  consciousness,  and  their  etTects  on  the 
temper  and  conduct:  the  first  is  sensible  observation,  the 
second  is  internal  observation;  the  first  we  call  physics,  the 
second  the  science  of  the  mind — and  in  both  we  cannot 
make  the  necessary  experiments  ourselves,  we  take  them 
upon  credible  testimony. 

How,  then,  stand  the  facts  as  to  this  inward  witness  to 
Christianity;  which  is  of  course  a  spiritual  and  interior 
process,  taking  place  in  the  receptacle  of  the  human  heart.'' 
What  are  the  internal  observations.''  What  the  phenomena.'' 
What  the  correspondent  effects.'' 

1.  There  are,  then,  thousands,  and  tens  of  thousands 
OF  WITNESSES,  In  various  ages,  from  the  first  dawn  of  Reve- 
lation after  the  fall  of  Adam,  to  the  present  moment,  who 
humbly  but  firmly  testify  that  the  peculiar  effects  of  the 
divine  grace-,  as  stated  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  have  been 
produced  in  them;  that  they  have  tried,  and  that  their  trial 
was  successful;  that  they  have  made  the  experiment  of  the 
divine  promises  of  illumination,  pardon,  strcngtii,  consola- 
tion, and  have  found  those  promises  verified. 

More  especially,  since  the  promulgation  of  the  glorious 
gospel,  and  the  larger  effusion  of  the  grace  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  there  is  a  cloud  of  witnesses  of  all  ranks,  all  ages, 
all  casts  of  character,  all  previous  habits,  who  declare  that 
they  have  put  the  truth  of  Christianity  to  the  test  of  experi- 
ment, and  have  found  that  the  peculiar  effects,  stated  in  the 
New  Testament  to  be  inseparable  concomitants  of  a  lively 
faith  in  Christ,  have  been  produced  in  them. 

Let  us  examine  any  number  of  these  facts.  Begin  where 
you  please.  Take  the  first  age  after  the  apostolic.  What 
do  Clemens  Romanus,  Polycarp,  Irena^us,  Justin  Martyr, 
tell  us  in  every  page  of  their  writings.''  Do  they  not  assert 
that  they  found  a  divine  excellency  and  glory  in  Christian- 


LECT.   XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  169 

ity,  and  especially  in  the  doctrine  of  the  person  and  work 
of  Christ?  Do  they  not  assert  that  Christianity  changed 
their  whole  character,  and  produced  the  very  same  ell'ects, 
and  gave  the  very  same  inward  experience  and  consolation 
of  wliich   the  apostolic  converts  partook? 

Go  to  the  series  of  succeeding  afjcs.  Read  the  Fathers. 
See  what  Cyprian,  and  Chrysostom,  and  Ambrose,  and  St. 
Austin,  and  Claudius  of  ^J'urin,  and  Anselm,  and  Bernard, 
testify  as  to  the  experiment  they  made  of  Christianity.  Is 
not  the  love  of  Clirist,  which  inflamed  their  hearts,  the 
grand  excellency  and  the  redeeming  quality  of  their  writ- 
ings; that  which  j-emains  as  the  uniform  result,  after  all  the 
passing  controveraies,  errors  on  rnany  incidental  points,  and 
superstitions  and  .false  devotions  are 'deducted?  There  is 
nothing,  perhaps,  in  modern  divinity  to  be  compared  with 
the  confessions  of  St.  Austin,  as  a  testimony  to  the  reality 
of  experimental  Christianity. 

And  what  did  the  great  leaders  at  the  period  of  the  bless- 
ed Reformation  say?  What  are  the  facts  in  the  case  of 
Luther  and  Melancthon,  Zuingle  and  Ecolampadius,  Cran- 
mcr  and  Latimer  and  Ridley?  Did  they  not  find  the  same 
experiments  issue  in  the  self-same  results?  Were  not  the 
phenomena  precisely  similar? 

Ask  the  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pious 
Christians  in  the  present  day.  They  make  the  same  reply. 
They  declare  with  one  mouth,  that  they  have  found  all  the 
promised  blessings  of  Christianity  realised,  all  the  concom- 
mitants  of  a  lively  faith  produced,  all  the  peculiar  testimony 
of  grace  in  the  heart  and  conscience  afforded. 

In  a  word,  the  discoveries  made  by  the  light  of  Scripture; 
the  promises  fulfilled,  especially  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit; 
the  prayers  answered;  tlie  abiding  effects  produced  on  the 
judgment,  affections,  habits,  and  conduct;  the  comfort 
derived  from  the  communion  of  the  soul  with  Christ;  the 
superiority  and  conqviest  obtained  over  the  world  and  its 
allurements;"  the  ho[)e  of  heaven,  which  gilds  the  moments 
of  sorrow  and  cheers  under  the  approach  of  death:  these 
are  the  solid,  clear  fticts   of  the  case,  taking  place   in  the 

(a)  Scott. 
22 


170  I,K(  TURKS    ON    THK  LECT,     XIX. 

interior  receptacle  of  the  heart,  and  attested  to  others  by 
the  proper  credentials  of  numerous,  calm,  undcviating  wit- 
nesses. I'hese  constitute  a  body  of  phenomena  which  any 
one  may  put,  in  his  own  case,  to  the  test  of  experiment, 
and  on  which  the  most  secure  inductive  proof  may  be  built. 

2.  For  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  there  is  an  identity  in 
tlie  result  of  all  these  experiments  which  affords  the  utmost 
safety  to  those  who  reason  from  them;  just  as  the  identity 
of  physical  facts,  or  of  phenomena  in  the  operations  of 
mind,  guard  the  philosopher  from  practical  errors  in  science. 

We  allow  that  the  utmost  caution  is  required  in  this  case, 
because  the  operations  are  internal,  seated  in  the  con- 
science, not  subjected  to  the  perception  of  the  senses,  not 
capable  of  being  projected  and  thrown  out.  But  then  they 
are  not  the  less  real,  when  ascertained  by  a  comparison  of 
a  sufficient  number  of  well-attested  cases.  We  separate 
and  lay  out  of  the  question  all  doubtful  phenomena,  as  the 
nutural  philosopher  puts  aside  doubtful  facts.  We  take 
away  also,  as  he  does,  all  that  may  be  produced  by  other 
causes.  We  then,  after  his  example,  reduce  ail  the  experi- 
ments to  that  which  agrees  in  each.  We  go  with  him  to 
the  appropriate  and  discriminating  marks  of  the  specific 
effects  to  be  ascertained.  We  likewise  proceed  cautiously 
in  collecting  our  facts  and  inferring  any  general  laws.  And 
then,  after  all,  we  assert  that  there  is  a;i  identity,  a  peculiar- 
ity, an  uniform  and  grand  and  perceptible  effect  on  the 
heart  of  man,  produced  by  the  Christian  doctrine,  and  by 
the  Christian  doctrine  only,  which  may  be  established  in 
proof,  which  is  found  no  where  else  but  in  true  Christians, 
which  is  found  always  in  them,  and  which  is  wholly  distinct 
from  a  mere  moral  conviction  of  the  truth  of  Christianity 
and  a  mere  formal  admission  of  its  creed. 

3.  We    assert,  moreover,    that    these  phenomena   are    in 

AGREEMENT    WITH    THE    WRITTEN    WORD  OF    Goi),  and  CXaCtly 

what  that  word  declares  shall  take  place  in  all  who  become 
its  disciples.  This  is  a  confirmation  which  the  philosopher 
does  not  possess.  He  has  no  divine  system  of  the  creation, 
attested  by  external  proofs,  to  which  he  can  refer  his  indi- 
vidual experiments  and  check  his  conclusions.  The  Chris- 
tian philosopher  has. 


LECT.    XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  171 

4.  Then  we  produce  multitudes  who  can  trace  out,  in 
themselves  and  others,  some  of  the  main  steps  of  the 
pKocEss  of  this  experience — ^just  as  the  naturalist  can  some- 
times follow  the  successive  changes  in  the  progress  of  his 
experiments.  Many  Christians  can  well  remember  the  time 
when  every  thing  was  contrary  in  them  to  what  it  now  is — 
when  they  disliked  and  disrelished  spiritual  things;  when 
they  supremely  loved  the  world;  when  they  had  no  hatred 
of  sin  or  humiliation  on  account  of  it;  when  they  were  so  far 
from  perceiving  any  excellency  or  glory  in  the  doctrine  of 
Christ,  that  they  despised  and  contemned  it;  when  they  were 
so  far  from  knowing  any  thing  of  the  experience  of  the 
divine  grace,  that  they  did  not  believe  there  was  such  a  thing. 
when  they  were  so  far  from  loving  true  Christians  because 
they  bore  the  image. of  Christ,  that  they  hated  and  avoided 
them  in  proportion   as  they  bore  that  image. 

But  they  were  led  to  inquire — they  were  led  to  seek 
humbly  into  the  truth  of  the  Christian  doctrine;  and  they 
became  themselves  step  by  step  the  witnesses  of  its  grace. 
Nor  in  their  own  cases  only;  they  have  been  able,  as 
ministers  and  parents  and  friends,  to  trace  the  process  of  this 
experiment  in  those  commited  to  their  care;  whose  spirit, 
affections,  and  conduct,  they  have  daily  had  the  opportunity 
of  watching;  and  in  whose  cases  they  have  discerned  with 
joy  the  life  and  feelings  of  true  Christianity  gradually  ap- 
pearing. 

Not  that  the  process  can  be  traced  in  all  instances.  The 
improvement  may  be,  and  frequently  is,  imperce[)tible  under 
the  means  of  instruction,  the  sacraments,  education,  the  ex- 
ample of  friends,  the  public  ministry  of  the  word,  the  dis- 
cipline of  affliction,  the  perusal  of  awakening  treatises. 
But  the  grand  result — the  identity  of  effect,  is  the  same 
in  all. 

5.  But  we  go  further.  We  state  that  though  this  experi- 
ence of  religion  is,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  chielly  hid- 
den in  the  secret  of  the  breast — -to  be  known  only  to  the 
possessor  and  to  be  attested  to  others  by  his  credible  declara- 
tion— yet  there  arc  certain  fruits  and  coNSEqi:ENCES  at- 
PEARING  outwardly  IN  THE  CONDUCT,  vvhicli  are  the  pecul- 


172  LECTURES  ON  THE        [lECT.  XIX, 

iar  and  inseparable  evidences  of  these  internal  feelings,  and 
lie  open  to  the  observation  of  mankind.  We  appeal  con- 
stantly to  the  holy,  benevolent,  useful  lives  of  all  who  claim 
ariii^ht  this  inward  witness  of  Christianity,  which  we  con- 
stantly require  as  the  appropriate  testimony  of  their  sincer- 
ity. We  thus  discern  the  hypocrite,  the  enthusiast,  the 
mere  partisan,  the  false  religionist.  H  men  profess  to  have 
the  internal  experience  of  Christianity,  we  ask  for  the  proof; 
and  it  is  only  as  their  consistent,  self-denying,  blameless, 
and  upright  conduct,  supports  their  profession,  that  we 
credit  their  statements.  These  are  visible  and  tangible  evi- 
dences. These  distinguish  the  gem  from  the  counterfeit. 
These  are  the  king's  mark,  so  to  speak,  upon  the  coin. 
Men  who  thus  act,  ought,  and  must,  and  ever  will  be  be- 
lieved, when  they  assert  that  they  have  those  internal  feel- 
ings which  arc  described  in  Scripture,  as  flowing  from 
Christianity,  and  which  they  affirm  to  be  the  source  whence 
their  conduct  springs. 

Such  then  are  the  facts  on  which  our  argument  rests. 
And  here  we  pause  to  ofler  two  remarks  on  these  phenomena 
and  experiments  as  to  real  Christianity. 

What,  we  ask,  is  there  in  these  internal  perceptions  of 
life  and  consolation  and  strength,  derived  from  the  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  which  should  excite  our  astonishment!* 
Would  not  the  wonder  bcj  if  there  were  no  such  feelings, 
no  such  Inward  witness  to  the  soulf  What!  are  there  ex- 
cellencies in  human  knowledge,  and  shall  there  be  none  in 
divine?  What!  is  an  intelligent,  wcll-edncated  man  allowed 
to  have  powers  of  expression  and  means  of  exciting  our 
surprise  and  pleasure  be}  ond  those  of  a  child,  and  shall  not 
the  language  of  ajjostles  and  prophets,  and  the  discoveries 
concerning  God  and  the  soul  and  eternity,  be  admitted  to 
awaken  emotions  beyond  the  mere  trifles  of  human  knowl- 
edge and  instruction.  What!  are  men  of  uncommon  en_ 
dowments,  as  Bacon,  Pascal,  Newton,  allowed  to  rise  above 
those  of  ordinary  talents,  and  are  they  exj)ected  to  take 
wider  views  and  make  more  important  conununications  and 
excite  warmer  feelings  of  wonder,  admiration,  gratitude; 
and  shall  not  the  gieat  and  infinite  God  be   allowed  to  sur- 


LECT.     XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  173 

pass  all  the  petty  communications  of  man,  in  the  mysteries 
of  his  will,  in  the  importance  of  his  commands,  in  the 
deptlis  of  his  mercy;  and  in  the  correspondent  emotions  of 
fear,  love,  faith,  hope,  grateful  joy,  affiance,  awakened  in 
the  heart?  VVhatI  do  we  allow  that  in  the  displays  of 
glory  and  beauty  in  tlie  works  of  creation,  the  natural 
perfections  of  God  may  be  contemplated  and  known, 
and  become  to  the  pious  and  duly  prepared  mind,  the 
sources  of  internal  peace,  thanksgiving,  prayer,  admira- 
tion, obcdienc;e,  resignation;  and  sliall  we  not  admit,  that 
men  may  perceive  the  moral  perfections  of  God  in  the 
gospel? — Shall'  all  liis  mercy  and  wisdom  and  infinite 
contrivance  in  redemption,  have  no  eftect  uj)on  the  soul.'' 
— Shall  the  stupendous  fact  of  the  incarnation  be  received 
with  a  tame  indifterejice?  What!  do  men  allow  that  tidinjrs 
of  joy  and  deliverance  in  human  things  should  call  up  pro- 
portionate aflections;  and  that  he  would  be  thought  a  mon- 
ster of  ingratitude,  who  should  receive  with  apathy  the  news 
of  an  immense  act  of  royal  clemency  extended  to  him  when 
condemned  to  death;  apd  shall  we  not  allow  that  the  glori- 
ous and  unexpected  tidings  of  redemption  from  eternal 
death,  should  awaken  all  the  gratitude  of  the  soul?  Shall 
not  pardon  and  life  and  adoption  and  the  hope  of  heaven, 
overwhelm  the  heart  with  some  correspondent  perceptions 
and  emotions? 

Yes,  it  is  most  reasonable,  that  if  there  be  such  a  thing 
as  a  Revelation  from  the  great  God,  comprising  such  amaz- 
ing discoveries  as  the  gospel,  afiecting  such  all-important 
interests,  promising  such  mighty  aids  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
laying  down  such  grounds  of  faith  and  love  and  hope  in 
Christ  Jesus  delivering  man  from  such  complicated  misery, 
and  exalting  him  to  such  heights  of  holy  peace  and  joy — it  is 
most  reasonable,  that  there  should  be  such  a  thing  as  per- 
ceiving the  excellency  and  glory  of  it,  as  feeling  its  efficacy, 
as  having  an  inward  witness  of  its  fulfilment  and  operations 
in  our  own  breasts.  There  is  nothing  to  astonish  us  in  such 
eftects — the  matter  of  astonishment  would  be,  if  Christian- 
ity did  not  assert,  and  Christians  did  not  experience,  them. 

But  we  remark,  also,  that  it  is  \o  ajigument  that  these 

THINGS    cannot    BE    BECAUSE    SOME     HAVE    NEVEU    FELT  THEM 


174  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XIX. 

Nothing  upon  earth  can  be  more  unreasonable  than  to 
make  my  experience  the  standard  of  all  that  has  occurred, 
or  can  occur  to  others,  on  such  a  subject  as  practical  relig- 
ion. No  doubt  multitudes,  who  profess  Christianity  and 
pass  as  Christians,  have  never  experienced  these  peculiar 
eftects  of  the  gospel,  just  as  there  are  multitudes  who  call 
themselves  admirers  of  the  works  of  nature,  who  have  never 
made  the  experiments,  nor  gone  through  the  investigations, 
which  the  philosopher  has  done.  They  may  be  discerning 
men  in  other  matters;  but  they  are  no  judges  of  a  philoso- 
phical question,  nor  can  they  ever  become  such,  unless  they 
will  either  receive  the  facts  of  the  case  upon  credible  tes- 
timony, or  go  through  the  course  of  experiments  for  them- 
selves. 

An  astonishing  result  in  chemistry  is  reported  to  me.  I 
know  nothing  of  chemistry — I  have  not  read  much  on  the 
subject — the  facts  strike  me  as  incredible — I  neither  exam- 
ine the  writings  of  the  great  chemists  of  the  day,  and  re- 
ceive their  united  and  well-ascertained  testimony;  nor  do  I 
enter  on  the  business  of  the  laboratory  myself — or,  if  I  do, 
it  is  w^ithout  preparation  or  any  knowledge  of  the  elements 
of  the  science,  and  I  fail;  and  yet  I  refuse  to  believe  the 
facts,  and  calumniate  and  despise  those  w  ho  do,  however 
carefully  they  have  examined  and  verified  them. 

Such  is  the  unreasonable  conduct  of  those  who  reject  the 
doctrine  of  the  inward  witness  of  Christianity,  because  they 
have  never  felt  it  themselves.  The  truth  is,  they  may  never 
have  been  in  a  situation  to  judge  of  it.  They  may  never 
have  had  any  religious  earnestness;  have  never  applied 
their  minds  to  the  gospel;  have  never  searched  the  con 
tents  of  the  Revelation.  They  rashly  conclude,  indeed, 
that  what  they  do  not  themselves  perceive  and  feel,  no  one 
else  perceives  and  feels;  that  what  they  have  never  experi- 
enced, is  not  necessary,  not  important,  not  reasonable.  And 
yet  what  proof  is  this  that  other  men,  with  another  prepara- 
tion of  mind,  and  other  previous  tastes,  and  a  different  way 
of  going  about  things,  may  not  discover  that  inward  excel- 
lency, and  feel  those  sacred  comforts  which  these  men  con- 
temn.'*    If  there   be  a  book  of  God,  we  may  well  suppose 


LECT.     XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  175 

that  the  distinguishing  glories  of  its  discoveries  would  be  of 
such  a  kind  as  iliat  the  corruption  and  self-confidence  of  the 
jiuman  heart  would  be  incapable  of  perceiving  them.**  The 
natural  man  receivpth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  for 
they  are  foolishness  unto  him;  neither  can  he  knoio  them,  because 
they  are  spiritually  discerned.'^  There  must  be  the  faculty,  as 
well  as  the  object.  The  natural  man  must  be  taught  to  re- 
nounce his  wisdom,  his  alienation  from  God,  his  pride,  and 
self-consequence,  and  he  must  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
as  a  litile  child,  or  he  never  will  receive  those  distinguishing 
truths, -nor  feel  those  peculiar  blessings,  which  are  spiritually 
discerned.  The  conclusions  of  such  a  person  against  the 
experience  of  religion,  are  like  the  conclusions  of  a  blind 
man  against  the  beauties  of  the  heavens,  or  the  glories  oi  the 
rainbow;  they  are  prejudices,  not  reasons;  and  they  leave 
our  grand  position  in  all  its  incontrovertible  force, — that 
therp  is  an  inward  testimony  to  Christianity,  which  is  sup- 
ported by  the  authority  of  sacred  Scripture,  confirmed  by 
iimumerable  witnesses,  and  lying  open  to  the  examination 
of  every  humble  student;  by  which  the  excellency  and  force 
of  the  Christian  doctrine  may  be  known  from  its  holy  conso- 
lations in  the  heart,  in  a<ldition  to  the  conviction  produced 
by  mere  arguments,  or  the  dictates  of  natural    conscience. 

But  we  pass  on  to  consider, 

IV.    The    singular    impoutanxe    of    the    proof    thus 

EDUCED. 

I.  It  is  the  only  proof  that  is  entirely  level  to  the  vast 
mass  of  mankind.  The  other  proofs,  indeed,  are,  in  a  cer- 
tain degree,  level  to  the  common  sense  of  man.  The  case 
made  out  from  the  miracles,  the  prophecies,  &,c.  is  such  as 
strikes,  upon  the  whole,  the  conscience.  But  then  it  is  im- 
possible for  the  great  body  of  persons  to  understand  fully 
and  adequately  the  grounds  on  which  the  case  rests. 
They  take  the  facts,  as  it  is  quite  reasonable  they  should  take 
them,  and  as  they  take  the  facts  in  medicine,  jurisprudence, 
public   statutes,  &,c.  upon  what  they  are  told  is  the  concur- 


(b)  J.  Edwards,— to  wliom  tliis  Lecture  is  tlirougliout  greatly  indebted. 

(c)  1  Cof.  xi.  M. 


176  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XIX. 

rent  testimony  of  a  vast   number  of  men   in  different   ages 
and  nations,  who  are  known  to  be  competent  for  deciding. 

With  regard  to  tlie  internal  evidence,  the  bulk  of  man- 
kind are  far  better  capable  of  judging  for  themselves,  than 
in  the  case  of  the  external.  The  morals  especially,  and 
the  example  of  our  Lord,  are  level  to  every  capacity  in 
their  chief  features;  at  the  same  time,  as  they  stand  con- 
nected with  the  history  of  Christianity  and  its  doctrines, 
they  involve  rriatter  requiring  considerable  reflection,  and 
much  thought. 

But  the  argument  from  experience  has  that  sort  of  force, 
which  strikes  an  unlettered  and  plain  mind  at  once.  Unless 
men  can  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  of  the  gospel 
by  its  own  intrinsic  light  and  excellency,  and  its  holy  effects 
upon  them,  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  have  any  thorough 
and  adequate  conviction  at  all.  Except  the  arguments  from 
the  morals  and  the  example  of -Christ,  (which  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  part  of  this,  in  which  it  centres,  and  comes  to 
its  rest,)  they  cannot  have  a  clear  and  satisfying  conviction. 
Tiiey  may  see,  indeed,  a  great  probability;  it  may  be  rea- 
sonable for  tiiem  to  give  credit  to  what  learned  men  tell 
them,  (and  under  the  circumstances  it  is  most  reasonable;) 
but  to  have  a  conviction  so  strong  and  intimate  as  to  carry 
them  through  all  duties  and  trials,  and  lead  them  to  part 
with  all  for  Christ,  the  evidence  they  can  derive  from  liis- 
tory  will  not  suffice.  Thos^  who  have  not  somewhat  of  a 
general  view  of  the  series  of  historical  events  in  the  world,  ' 
and  of  the  state  of  mankind  from  aije  to  aire,  cannot  see 
for  themselves  the  clear  evidence,  from  history,  of  the  truth 
of  facts  in  distant  ages.  All  is  confused,  indistinct,  doubt- 
fur  to  their  view. 

But  the  gospel  was  not  given  for  the  learned  only,  or 
principally,  but  for  the  poor — for  the  great  body  of  men. 
There  are  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  of  those  for 
whom  the  sacred  Scriptures  were  written,  who  are  not  capa- 
ble of  any  certain  or  effectual  conviction  of  their  divine 
authority  by  such  arguments  as  learned  men  employ.  If 
men,  brought  up  in  heathenism,  must  wait  for  a  certain 
conviction  of  Christianity  till  they  have   learning  and  ac- 


LECT.  XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITy.  177 

quaintance  with  the  history  of  politer  nations,  so  as  to  see 
clearly  the  force  of  such  kind  of  arguments,  it  would  make 
the  evidence  of  the  gospel  cumbersome,  and  its  propagation 
among  them  infinitely  difficult.'' 

Now  it  has  pleased  God  to  give  an  evidence  beyond  mere 
probability — some  higher  persuasion  than  any  from  history 
or  human  tradition.  A  view  of  the  divine  glory  in  the  gos- 
pel, and  a  perception  of  its  efficacy  in  their  hearts,  convince 
them  of  its  divine  character  at  once.  He  that  truly  sees  the 
transcendent,  supreme  glory  of  these  things,  and  feels  their 
healing  virtue,  and  has  obtained  life  and  salvation  by  them, 
knows,  as  it  were,  their  divine  origin  by  intuition;  he  not 
only  argues,  but  sees,  they  are  divine.  Not  that  the  soul 
judges  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  to  be  from  God,  with- 
out any  argument  or  deduction  at  all;  but  it  is  without  any 
long  chain  of  argument:  the'  argument  is  but  one,  and  the 
evidence  direct;  tbe  mind  ascends  to  the  truth  of  the  gos- 
pel by  but  one  step — its  divine  glory  and  fulfilment  in  itself 
of  all  its  promises. 

It  is  this  experience  which  supported  the  martyrs  and  con- 
fessors (many  of  whom  were  women  and  illiterate  persons;) 
it  is  this  which,  in  fact,  sustains  the  faith  of  tiie  mass  of  our 
Christian  population. 

The  number  of  those  who  can  argue  and  reason,  and 
weigh  historical  proofs,  is  very  few.  The  number  of  those 
who  can  feel  the  power  of  the  gospel,  and  discern  its  glory, 
is  vast  as  the  human  race. 

Merely  literary  men  are  slow  to  admit  that  vulgar  minds 
can  have  any  rational  perception  of  truths  involving  great 
and  high  contemplation.  They  overlook  tiic  distinction 
between  the  nice  analysis  of  principles,  the  accurate  state- 
ment of  definitions,  logical  inferences,  and  the  solulion  of 
difficulties;  and  the  structure  of  our  own  thoughts, 
AND  THE  PLAY  OF  THE  AFFECTIONS.  They  disccm  Hot  be- 
tween the  theory  of  metaphysical  science;  and  the  first 
truths  and  rational  instincts  which  are  implanted  in  the 
breasts  of  all — and  which  prepare  them  to  see  the  glory  of 

the  gospel,  to  feel  its  influence,  and  to  argue  from  both  for 

■/■ 

(tl)  J.  Edwards. 

23 


178  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XIX. 

the  divinity  of  Christianity.  The  one  is  an  elevating  em- 
j)loynient  of  the  intellect;  tiie  other  the  germs  and  seeds  of 
all  intellectual  and  moral  knowledge,  which  lie  dormant  till 
they  are  called  fortii  by  occasions,  and  then  they  burst  forth 
into  life  and  power.'' 

The  conviction,  then,  built  upon  the  perception  of  a 
divine  virtue  and  glory  in  Christianity,  is  an  inward  witness, 
most  rational  in  itself,  although  entirely  level  to  the  whole 
body  of  mankind. 

2.  But  this  evidence  is  the  most  satisfactory  that  can 
be  adduced  to  men  of  all  classes  and  degrees  of  learning. 
For  to  feel  the  healing  power  of  the  gospel;  to  admire  its 
immense  glory;  to  knosv  its  inward  efficacy;  to  find  that  it 
raises  us  towards  God;  to  be  persuaded  that  it  brings  us  into 
communication  with  the  Father  of  Spirits;  to  know  that  it 
places  us  in  unison  and  harmony  with  the  will  of  the  su- 
preme Arbiter;  to  be  conscious  of  elevation,  of  happiness, 
of  hope,  which  go  on  towards  heaven,  and  attract  us  thither, 
— all  this  is  a  sort  of  evidence  so  different  from  mere  logi- 
cal proof — so  far  higher  than  mere  conclusions  of  reason, 
that  it  places  man  on  another  fooling,  and  lands  him  in  an- 
other region.  The  persuasion  from  historical  and  internal 
evidence  pro^luces  an  human  faith;  silences  objections  from 
without;  proves  negatively  that  man  could  not  have  invented 
the  gospel;  establishes  the  abstract  excellency  of  its  doc- 
trines, precepts,  founder,  and  tendency.  But  these  con- 
clusions are  cold,  timid,  uninfluential,  till  the  heart  is  warm- 
ed and  touched  with  the  love  of  God;  till  the  inward  testi- 
mony of  the  gospel,  from  its  surprising  glory  and  blessed 
eftects  upon  the  whole  character,  is  added  to  all  the  others. 
Then  the  mind  is  inflamed — then  all  the  preceding  classes 
of  evidence  kindle  into  life — then  the  soul  of  man  reposes 
in  satisfaction;  it  feels  it  has  attained  to  truth,  has  secured 
the  treasure,  found  the  Pearl  of  great  price,  leached  the 
highest  good  and  proper   blessedness  of  man. 

And  what  has  learning  to  say  to  all  this?  What  can 
mere  talents  for  research,  or  depth  of  genius,  or  powers  of 
eloquence  say  to  an  evidence  which  pardons,  and  sanctifies, 

(e)  Vcrplauk. 


LECT.     XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  179 

and  saves?  I  may  bo  silenced  by  all  these  human  reason- 
ings; I  am  made  happy  and  holy  by  the  inward  resources  of 
Christianity. 

Accordingly,  there  is  no  time  when  this  inward  testimony 
is  not  the  most  satisfactory,  from  its  very  nature,  to  the 
heart  of  man;  whilst  there  are  times  of  peculiar  tempta- 
tion, when  no  other  can  afford  relief.  No  minds  are  so  open 
to  the  incursion  of  doubt,  as  the  most  powerful  and  argu- 
mentative: no  minds  are  so  open  to  the  fiery  darts  of  the 
great  adversary;  none  so  prone  to  an  infirm  and  wavering 
faith.  In  these  respects,  the  moral  and  internal  witness 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart,  is  a  refuge  and  consolation. 
It  shuts  out  doubts;  it  silences  cavils;  it  overrules  objec- 
tions; it  quells  speculative  difficulties. 

To  be  conscious  of  the  divine  glory  of  the  things  revealed; 
to  feel  their  elevating,  purifying,  consoling  effects;  to  know 
ihcy  have  made  me  a  better  man;  to  recollect  that  answers 
to  prayer,  and  fulfilment  of  promises,  have  been  and  are 
testifying  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  to  the  heart — these 
are  solid  proofs,  which  silence  the  floating  conjectures  and 
momentary  hesitations  which  temptations  may  inject  into 
the  mind.  The  soul  has  an  anchor,  a  hold,  an  interior  con- 
viction of  Christianity,  which  nothing  can  shake.  It  is  not 
this  or  that  particular  argument  merely,  that  sustains  our 
faith;  it  is  the  great  substance  of  the  gospel,  producing 
holy  and  heavenly  effects  upon  the  heart  and  character. 

3.  But  this  is  also  a  guowing,  germinating  evidence; 
ever  new,  ever  at  hand,  every  reviving.  It  advances  with 
our  knowledge  of  God,  our  love  to  our  Saviour,  our  victory 
over  sin,  our  fervency  in  prayer,  our  spiritual  tastes,  habits, 
and  joys.  Other  evidences  will,  from  the  nature  of  things, 
decline  in  vividness.  Our  perception  of  them  becomes 
faint.  The  mind  cannot  be  roused  at  once  to  the  considera- 
tion of  them.  We  are  obliged,  on  all  the  less  obvious 
points,  to  rely  on  what  I  may  call  past  evidence;  a  recollec- 
tion that  we  have  once  examined  the  subject  to  the  bottom, 
and  then  attained  the  most  complete  conviction  of  its  truth, 
though  the  particulars  arc  no  longer  present  witli  the  mind. 
But  this  inward  testimony  is  always  at  hand,  always  refresh- 


180  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XIX, 

ing;  it  is  cntwincil  al)oiit  our  associations  and  habits  of 
tliouglit;  it  is  iiisc'i)arable  from  our  religious  feelings;  it  is 
springing  up  uilli  all  our  holiest  desires,  prayers,  aspirations. 
The  young  penitent  lias  some  measure  of  this  interior  proof, 
in  the  purifying  and  consoling  power  of  Christianity  upon 
his  heart.  But  every  year  he  lives,  his  persuasion  becomes 
deeper  with  his  deeper  experience,  his  new  observations 
upon  the  glory  of  the  religion,  his  growing  acquaintance 
with  its  promises,  his  increa9ing  recollections  of  answers  to 
his  prayers.  This  inward  experience  is  an  accompanying 
stream  of  grace  and  consolation,  with  all  the  freshness  of  its 
fust  rise  upon  it,  and  yet  all  the  depth  and  volume  of  its 
accumulated  progress.  It  is  like  a  river  of  life  flowing  with 
us  through  the  world.  It  is  anexhaustless  spring  which 
strengthens  and  widens  as  we  advance  towards  the  borders 
of  that  eternal  state  whither  we  are  going. 

4.  Not  that  we  are  to  disparage  the  other  branches  of 
evidence,  because  we  assign  to  this  a  province  in  some  re- 
spects higher.     On  the  contrary,  by  this  inward  testimony, 

VS'e  STRENGTHEN  ALL  THE  EXTERNAL  AND  INTERNAL  PROOFS, 

where  we  are  in  circumstances  to  study  them,  and  prepare 
the  mind  for  judging  of  them  aright.  Those  documents 
and  deeds  of  our  inheritance  remain  as  they  were,  in  the 
hands  of  all  who  are  competent  to  examine  them.  There 
they  are,  the  external  bulwarks  and  defence  of  our  religion. 
We  desert  not  one  part  of  the  fortification.  There  stand 
the  miracles  and  prophecies.  There  remains  the  miracu- 
lous propagation.  There  are  the  obvious  good  eflects 
which  Christianity  has  produced.  There  also  stand  the  in- 
ternal evidences — the  adaptation — the  sublimity  of  the 
doctrines — the  morals — the  character  of  Christ — the  bene- 
ficial tendency.  All  these  remain  in  their  original  strength. 
But  this  inward  conviction  of  the  excellency  of  the  dis- 
'coveries  of  Revelation  by  their  own  light,  and  of  the  healing 
grace  of  it  communicated  to  the  heort,  adds  incomparable 
force  to  the  result,  pushes  the  demonstration  to  its  highest 
point — and  that  jwint,  such  as  to  approjiriate  all  the  bles- 
sings to  man,  to  bring  him  to  his  true  end,  and  accomplish 
that  for  which  all  the  other  proofs  were  preparatory. 


LECT.  XIX.]  KVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  181 

And  thus  the  mind  is  assisted  in  judging  of  the  external 
proofs.  As  a  man  who,  from  blindness,  or  the  darkness  of 
a  cavern,  should  fnst  behold  the  sun,  would  have  a  reflex 
light  thrown  upon  the  evidences  by  which  he  had  previously 
credited  its  existence;  so  he  who  beholds  the  sun  of  right- 
eousness, and  the  glory  of  the  divine  Saviour,  from  a  pre- 
vious state  of  moral  blindness  and  unbelief,  will  have  a  re- 
flex light  cast  upon  all  the  external  evidences  by  which  he 
credited  the  truths  of  Christianity. 

This  inward  obedience  to  religion,  also,  removes  all  that 
prejudice  and  obscurity  of  the  heart,  by  which  the  force 
even  of  external  proof  is  much  weakened.  It  makes  the 
mind  from  unwilling,  willing;  from  prejudice,  unprejudiced; 
from  dull  and  heavy  and  reluctant,  ready  and  prompt;  from 
uninterested  and  indifferent,  lively  and  eager  and  impressed. 
It  assists  and  engages  the  attention;  it  helps  the  reasoning 
powers;  it  makes  even  the  speculative  notions  more   vivid. 

Then  when  we  come  to  the  internal  evidences  and  the 
matter  of  the  Revelation  itself,  how  much  more  complete 
and  satisfactory  is  the  impression  upon  the  heart  which  dis- 
cerns spiritual  things,  which  has  the  taste  and  faculty  for 
perceiving  the  things  of  the  Spirit,  the  darkness  of  nature 
having  been  removed!  How  does  the  suitableness  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  state  and  wants  of  man,  how  do  the  excellency 
and  glory  of  the  doctrines,  how  do  the  pure  and  heavenly 
morals,  how  does  the  attraction  of  Cin"ist's  holy  cliaracter, 
how  do  tiic  blessed  tendencies  of  Christianity  upon  man's 
present  and  eternal  welfare,  break  upon  the  pious  mind! 
In  fact,  the  inward  testimony  of  Christianity  is  like  the  fac- 
ulty of  sight,  it  discerns  all  the  spiritual  ol)jects  which  con- 
stitute the  internal  evidences  of  Christianity.  And  though 
men  may  guess  at  these,  without  any  experience,  and  may 
form  some  notions  of  them,  from  education  and  the  lan- 
guage of  others,  and  books,  and  the  remains  of  natural 
light;  yet  they  perceive  no  real  glory,  nor  feel  any  divine 
efficacy  and  power  in  them;  and  therefore  the  conviction 
must  be  cold  and  defective;  it  will  want  energy  and  clear- 
ness and  unction;  the  man  caimot  discern  the  eflulgencc  of 
that  light  which,  like  the  orb  of  day,  is  its  own  best  and 


182  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XIX. 

most  glorious  evidence.  "For  as  God,  in  the  creation 
of  the  world,  has  so  made  and  formed  its  parts,  has  left  such 
characters  of  his  eternal  power  and  wisdom  on  them,  and 
filled  them  with  such  evidences  of  their  author  that  without 
any  other  testimony,  they  declare  their  Creator;  so,  in  his 
word,  he  has  by  his  Spirit  implanted  in  it  and  impressed 
upon  it  such  characters  of  his  goodness,  power,  wisdom, 
holiness,  love  to  mankind,  truth,  faithfulness,  that  at  all 
times  and  all  places  where  the  expansion  of  Scripture  is 
stretched  over  men  by  his  providence,  it  declares  itself  to 
be  his,  and  makes   good  its   authority  from   him."^ 

5.  This  proof,  therefore,  is  peculiarly  necessary  in 
THE  PRESENT  DAY,  if  WO  would  checlv  thc  progrcss  of  unbe- 
lief, and  promote  the  revival  of  pure  Christianity.  In  fact, 
one  principal  reason  of  the  decay  of  real  Christianity,  and 
the  sad  diffusion  of  infidelity  or  semi-infidelity  amongst  us 
is,  that  we  have  left  the  proofs  of  Christianity  in  the  cold 
region  of  historical  document  and  testimony.  It  has  been 
the  fashion  of  late  years,  to  make  the  subject  of  the 
evidences  an  intellectul  disquisition  merely,  a  matter 
of  argument  on  external  testimonies.  This  has  arisen 
from  a  too  general  decline  in  spiritual  religion,  and  from 
the  defence  of  Christianity  having,  accordingly,  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  men  of  mere  talents  and  skill  in  human  con- 
troversy, who,  with  all  their  learning  and  acuteness,  were 
greatly  wanting  in  a  persuasion  of  the  glory  of  the  divine 
things  revealed  in  the  Scriptures,  and  would,  on  these  points, 
have  yielded  too  much  to  the  spirit  of  infidelity.  Formerly, 
the  historical  arguments  were  less  attended  to — indeed  it  is 
but  of  late  years,  that  they  have  been  set  in  a  clear  and 
convincing  light;  perhaps  they  were  previously  too  much 
overlooked;  men  insisted  on  the  inward  excellency,  the 
divine   character,  the  self-evident  force  of  the   Scriptures.s 

These  were  the  topics  of  the  great  masters  of  divinity. 
Then  came  the  age  of  extravagance,  enthusiasm,  hypocriti- 
cal religion;  to  make  way  for  the  profaneness  of  the  court 
of  our  second    Charles.     Infidelity   was  not   long  behind. 

(f)  Owen.  (g)  Tlic  TO  bfiiv,  Hic   to  ctuTOTrKrrir. 


LECT.    XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  183 

Thon  the  apologists  for  Revelation,  infected  with  the 
iniquity  of  the  times,  descended  from  the  height  which  they 
no  longer  knew  how  to  defend,  into  the  field  of  historical 
debate.  They  put  the  evidences  as  low  as  possible.  They 
stopped  when  they  had  arranged  their  historical  testimonies, 
instead  of  pressing  on  to  the  internal  evidences  and  the  in- 
ward witness  of  Christianity.  They  manfully  and  ably  main- 
tained the  authenticity,  credibility,  divine  authority  of  the 
Scriptures,  (the  inspiration  they  abandoned;)  they  made  out  a 
strong  case  as  to  the  lives  and  testimonies  of  the  apostlesj 
they  touched  on  prophecy,  they  said  something  of  the  mor- 
als of  Christianity  and  the  originality  of  Christ's  character; 
they  spoke  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  and  a  future 
state.  Here  they  left  men,  scarcely  a  word  of  redemption, 
the  fall,  the  adaptation  of  Christianity  to  man's  wants,  the 
incarnation,  tlie  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  inward  efficacy 
of  religion  upon  the  heart,  the  practical  test  to  which  every 
sincere  inquirer  might  bring  its  offers. 

What  was  the  effect?  There  never  were  fewer  true  be- 
lievers amongst  those  educated  in  the  true  religion;  and 
infidelity  never  prevailed  so  much  as  in  the  age  in  which 
these  historical  arguments  were  handled  in  this  exclusive 
manner.  The  gospel  doth  not  go  abroad  thus  begging  for 
its  evidences,  so  much  as  some  think.  It.has  its  highest  and 
most  proper  evidences  in  itself* 

Nor  does  God  own  those  efforts  which  would  tacitly  de- 
tract from  the  operations  of  his  grace.  If  we  think  to  beat 
Satan,  the  world,  and  the  unbelief  of  the  human  heart  with 
arguments  merely,  we  shall  fail.  Men  are  told  to  look  to 
human  testimonies.  They  rest  upon  them.  They  read 
sound  and  well-reasoned  treatises.  They  are  satisfied. 
But  such  a  conviction  gives  nothing  of  that  warm  and  holy 
persuasion  of  the  truth  of  God,  which  an  inward  obedience 
to  the  gospel,  and  a  trial  of  its  promises,  would  produce. 
The  writers  know  nothing  of  these  things;  perhaps  nothing 
ot  the  main  doctrines  of  the  incarnation  and  sacrifice  of 
Christ.     The  reader  rests  contented  with  a  general  faith — 

(li)  J.  Edwards. 


184  LECTUKES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XIX. 

a  sort  of  negative  belief — a  state  of  mind  neither  pleasing  to 
God  nor  consolatory  to  man. 

But  if  young  people  are  directed  from  the  first  to  con- 
sider outward  evidences  as  introductory  to  internal,  and  all 
as  leading  to  a  personal  experience  of  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  result  is  totally  ditferent.  AViicn  this  divine 
glory  and  excellency  of  the  gospel  is  felt,  and  not  before, 
men  hold  to  Christianity  as  tlieir  sheet-anchor,  as  their  joy, 
their  treasure,  their  boast  all  the  day.  They  do  not  let  its 
peculiarities  be  hidden  through  false  shame;  they  do  not 
defend  it  merely  as  a  political  engine  for  the  good  order  of 
society.  They  feel  that  there  is  a  convincing,  a  subduing 
power  in  God's  word,  which  mere  schoolmen  cannot  under- 
stand and  do  not  approve;  but  which  the  true  Christian 
feels  and  knows.  Neither  his  reason  nor  the  authority  of 
men  have  created  the  belief  he  has  of  the  truth  of  the  word 
of  God.  His  reason  is  satisfied,  indeed,  and  in  harmony 
with  its  statements,  but  does  not  establish  its  truth.  It  is 
the  divine  glory  of  redemption,  the  actual  enjoyment  and 
fulfilment  of  the  promises,  the  real  healing  of  his  soul,  his 
communion  with  God  as  a  father,  which  commends  the  gos- 
pel to  him.  As  the  mirror,  brightly  polished  and  cleansed, 
is  fitted  to  reflect  the  splendor  of  the  skies;  so  is  his  under- 
standing to  the  tru-th  of  the  Scriptures,  which,  as  a  heavenly 
and  independent  sun  of  glory,  darts  upon  his  mind  its  holy 
rays,  with  such  a  strength  and  eflScacy,  that  he  believes  and 
receives  from  it  what  his  reason  could  never  have  conceiv- 
ed, nor  historical  arguments  have  described. 

The  discoveries  of  the  Bible  concerning  the  Almighty,  his 
perfections,  his  grace,  his  redemption  in  Christ  Jesus  and  the 
new-creating  energy  of  his  Spirit,  are  now  brought  near  to 
his  heart,  by  an  inward  and  personal  experience,  though 
they  still  lift  up  themselves  above  the  reach  of  his  intellect- 
ual powers,  which  wind  about  their  heights,  as  the  traveller 
about  the  inaccessible  summits  of  arduous  mountains  which 
he  silently  contemplates  and  admires.' 

(i)  Dr.  C.  Malan. 


LECT.  XIX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  1G7 

Here,  then,  we  close  the  argument.  In  our  next  Lecture 
we  shall  offer  some  directions  to  the  serious  inquirer  when 
entering  upon  the  investigation  for  himself. 

In  the  mean  lime,  I  appeal  to  all  sincere  Christians  be- 
fore me,  and  I  ask  them  whether  I  have  overstated  the  na- 
ture of  this  argument,  its  scriptural  authokity,  the  facts 
on  which  it  rests,  or  its  singular  importance.''  You  know 
the  excellency  and  grace  of  Christianity.  You  know  the 
way  in  which  it  has  answered  all  its  promises  to  you,  and 
fulfilled  all  the  expectations  it  had  raised.  You  know  the 
peace,  the  tranquillity  of  conscience,  the  love  of  God  and 
Christ,  v»'hich  it  has  shed  forth  in  your  mind.  You  are 
making  further  trial  daily  of  the  truth  of  its  declarations. 
You  are  assured,  by  your  own  inward  experience,  that  it  is 
no  cunningly  devised  fable  which  you  have  followed;  no 
cold  theory  of  morals;  no  abstract  discovery  of  the  being 
and  attributes  and  worship  of  Ahnighty  God.  No!  It  is 
the  life-giving  and  animating  communion  of  the  Saviour 
with  the  heart — it  is  the  i)articipation  of  a  new  nature — it 
is  the  Holy  Spirit  indwelling  the  soul — it  is  an  emanation  of 
the  holiness  and  felicity  of  God  iiimsclf — it  is  the  drinking 
at  the  divine  fountain  of  bliss  and  joy — it  is  the  anticipation 
and  pledge  of  the  heavenly  happiness. 

And  how  natural  it  is  that  this  species  of  evidence  should 
close  the  various  species  of  proof,  wliich,  like  columns  lofty 
and  substantial,  sustain  on  every  side  the  Christian  edifice! 
It  is  altoo-ether  in  the  usual  method  of  the  divine  dealings 
with  man.  There  are  primary  discoveries  and  impressions 
which  attend  the  first  essays  in  any  science,  and  there  are 
ulterior  and  more  ripened  views  which  spring  from  longer 
attention  to  phenomena,  more  careful  study,  and  a  riciier 
furniture  of  knowledge.  A  man  believes  the  facts  of  the 
Newtonian  philoso[)hy  in  youth,  from  the  testimony  of  oth- 
ers, and  a  slight  acquaintance  with  a  few  obvious  p/rinciples 
and  a  few  striking  experiments.  If,  however,  he  give  iiis 
mind  to  the  pursuit,  and  spend  his  life  in  gathering  facts, 
collecting  observations,  and  ai)plying  the  results  of  mathe- 
matical science  to  a  sound  philosophical  analysis,  he  ac- 
quires, in  a  course  of  years,  a  far  wider,  and  more  accurate 
24 


186  F.VIDKNCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY,  [lECT.    XIX. 

and  more  practical  knowledge  of  the  great  subject — a 
knowledge,  not  dilTercnt  in  kind,  but  vastly  more  exalted 
in  degree,  more  mellowed  into  a  ripened  conviction,  and 
more  united  with  all  the  habits  and  associations  of  his  mind, 
than  he  could  have  at  first. 

It  is  so  in  Christianity.  The  outward  evidences  are  de- 
signed for  those  who  are  not  in  a  state  of  mind  to  receive 
other  grounds  of  belief.  These  strike  the  attention.  Like 
the  miracles  of  which  they  are  the  record,  they  call  up 
men's  thoughts  to  the  interfering  hand  of  the  Almighty,  and 
to  the  divine  Revelation  for  wliich  he  thus  displays  his 
power.  When  these  evidences  are  admitted  and  acted 
upon,  the  internal  proofs  open  to  the  mind,  to  confirm  the 
faith  and  increase  the  attachment  already  produced.  And 
after  the  contemplation  of  the  interior  constitution  of  the 
religion,  the  divine  excellency  of  the  things  revealed  in 
themselves,  and  the  peculiar  eflfects  which  they  produce 
upon  the  heart,  complete  the  proof  and  give  an  inward  witr 
ness  to  the  truth  of  Christianity  which  rises  as  much  above 
every  other,  as  experience  surpasses  knowledge;  deliverance 
and  safety,  mere  barren  persuasion;  and  the  life  of  God  in 
the  soul,  those  means  of  belief  and  salvation,  which,  without 
that  life,  will  in  truth  only  increase  our  guilt  and  aggravate 
our  condemnation. 


LECTURE   XX. 


PRACTICAL  DIRECTIONS  FOR  THE  APPLICATION 
OF  THE  TEST  TO  WHICH  MEN  MAY  BRING 
THE  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION. 

Psalm  xxxiv.  8. 

O  taste  and  see  that  the  Ijord  is  good. 

We  now  come  to  address  those  who  are  anxious  to  make 
the  trial  for  themselves  of  the  promises  which  Christianity 
holds  out  to  the  humble  inquirer.  We  have  already  de- 
scribed the  nature  of  the  argument;  have  established  its 
authority  by  a  reference  to  the  Holy  Scriptures;  have  stated 
the  facts  in  real  life  which  support  every  part  of  the  state- 
ment, and  have  shown  the  singular  importance  of  the  result 
educed. 

But  the  question  is  so  infinitely  important,  and  yet  so 
open  to  difficulties  in  its  practical  application,  both  from 
the  corruption  of  man  and  the  busy  arts  of  the  great  spir- 
itual adversary  Satan,  that  I  am  anxious  to  offer,  in  the  pres- 
ent Lecture,  some  dihpxtions  to  those  who  may  be  disposed 
sincerely  to  enter  upon  the  inquiry. 

And  here  I  would  first  point  out  the  characters  which  I 
have  now  especially  in  view. 


188  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XX. 

I  have  hitherto  addressed  young  professed  Christians  gen- 
erally. I  have  endeavored  to  consider  the  dangers  of  those 
who  have  been  brought  up  in  the  bosom  of  Christianity,  and 
to  impress  them  with  a  sense  of  the  accumulated  and  vari- 
ous evidences,  historical  and  internal,  which  surround  or 
spring  from  the  lieavenly  doctrine.  But  I  now  turn  to  a 
rather  different  class,  or  rather  some  of  the  same  class,  un- 
der different  circumstances. 

I  suppose  such  of  them  to  be  collected  before  me,  as  have 
a  real  desire  to  make  the  experiment  for  themselves  of  the 
Christian  grace  and  promises,  and  to  make  it  in  that  spirit 
of  humility  with  which  alone  a  weak  and  sinful  creature  can 
approach  aright  the  infinite  God. 

I  suppose  them  to  have  attended  to  the  previous  argu- 
ments, at  least  so  far  as  to  have  some  impression  upon  their 
minds  of  the  magnificence  of  the  external,  and  the  harmony 
and  excellency  of  the  internal  proofs.  I  suppose  them,  not 
merely  simple,  docile,  ready  to  follow  truth  as  they  discover 
it  (which  we  staled  in  an  early  Lecture*  to  be  indispensa- 
ble to  any  successful  consideration  of  a  subject  like  relig- 
ion) but  something  more — I  suppose  them  to  feel  the  im- 
portance of  the  question,  to  have  a  conviction  fixed  on  their 
minds,  of  the  awful  consequences  of  a  mistake,  and  to 
be  impressed  with  the  goodness  of  God,  in  furnishing  such 
abundant  sources  of  confidence,  and  especially  in  proposing 
his  Revelation  to  the  trial  of  every  earnest  and  docile  sup- 
plicant. 

If  they  have  not  come  so  far  as  this  with  me,  they  are  not 
prepared  for  tlie  present  argument.  They  must  be  referred 
to  the  preceding  Lectures.  When  they  have  considered 
these  introductory  topics,  so  as  to  understand  how  the  ques- 
tion stands,  and  to  desire  heartily  to  enter  on  a  personal 
trialof  religion  as  a  matter  of  experience,  we  sliall  be  ready 
to  assist  them  to  do  so. 

At  present,  I  consider  the  case  of  the  serious,  the  anxious, 
the  impressible,  amongst  my  hearers. 

Whatever  may  have  been  your  previous  conduct,  and  with 
whatever  particular  temptations  or  difficulties  you  may  now 

(a)  Led.  ii. 


LECT.   XX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  189 

be  pressed,  Christianity  invites  you  to  draw  near:  she  says, 
in  the  language  of  my  text,  O  taste  and  see  that  the  Lord 
is  good.  She  says,  by  the  divine  lips  of  her  Founder,  Come 
unto  me,  all  ye  that  are  iveary  and  heavy  laden,  and  1  will 
give  you  rest.  Some  of  you  may  have  been  formerly  proud 
and  ambitious  in  spirit;  others  inflated  with  human  science 
and  the  vanity  of  intellectual  might;  others  may  have  been 
contaminated  with  the  vices,  and  sensualities,  and  profliga- 
cies of  the  world;  others  infected  with  the  ridicule,  and 
levity,  and  sarcasms,  cast  upon  religion  by  men  of  ready  wit 
and  thoughtless  minds;  others  may  have  been  merely  indiflfer- 
ent,  neglectful,  buried  in  the  temporalities  of  this  life. 

But  you  have  been  led  to  pause.  Some  calamity,  some 
of  the  consequences  of  your  own  misconduct,  which  you  did 
not  foresee;  some  stroke  of  sickness  or  death  in  your  family; 
some  sermon  or  devotional  treatise  or  example  of  piety  or 
portion  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  has  brought  you  to  consid- 
eration. You  have  stopped  in  the  downward  course  of  sin 
and  folly;  you  are  in  a  state  of  mind  to  listen  to  what  I  have 
further  to  say.  I  know  not  what  may  be  the  particular 
tossings  of  your  thoughts  at  this  moment;  but,  whatever 
they  are,  I  have  a  message  to  deliver  to  you. 

I  invite  you  to  make  a  trial,  in  your  own  case,  of  those 
practical  [)arts  of  Christianity  which  become  matters  of  ex- 
perience, when  they  are  duly  received.  Not,  indeed,  a  trial 
of  Christianity,  in  the  sense  of  deciding  whether  it  be  a 
Revelation  fiom  God  or  not.  To  settle  this  great  question, 
you  must  go  to  the  proper  external  proofs;  and  not  think  of 
meddling  with  the  inward  witness— a  thing  quite  beyond 
the  range  of  one  unconvinced  of  the  truth  of  Revelation 
itself.  What  you  are  about  to  do,  is  this.  Being  already 
convinced  of  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity,  from  its  proper 
external  evidences;  and  being  persuaded  of  the  excellency 
and  sublimity  of  its  chief  contents,  from  the  internal  evi- 
dences, you  wish  to  go  on  to  something  further.  You  have 
heard  of  that  perception  which  Christians  have  of  the  glory 
and  efficacy  of  their  religion,  and  of  that  fulfilment  of  its 
promises,  which  constitute  the  inward  witness  of  Christian- 
ity.    And  you  now  desire   to  attain  a  similar  interior  and 


190  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.   XX. 

practical  taste  of  the  truth  and  goodness  of  the  Almighty, 
by  making  a  trial  of  his  word,  and  bringing  to  the  test  of 
experiment,  in  your  own  case,  the  reality  of  the  blessings 
which  Christianity  proffers. 

I  dwell  on  this,  because  Satan  and  your  corrupt  imagina- 
tion will  instantly  attempt  to  confuse  and  mis-slate  the  real 
point,  the  moment  you  are  in  earnest  about  your  salvation. 
Remember,  then,  that  you  admit  the  being  and  perfections 
of  Almighty  God;  you  admit  the  bonds  of  primary  moral 
obligation  upon  man;  you  admit  the  iieavenly  origin  of  the 
Christian  religion.  The  question,  then,  now  before  you, 
regards,  not  the  divine  authority  of  Christianity,  but  the  ex- 
perience of  certain  practical  benefits  and  blessings,  which 
it  promises  to  all  who  submit  to  its  directions,  and  make  a 
trial  of  its  oflers.  It  is  not  you,  in  fact,  that  are  making  a 
trial  of  Christianity,  but  Christianity  that  is  making  a  trial 
of  you. 

The  directions,  then,  which  I  would  offer  you, 
in  entering  upon  this  practical  investigation,  are  such  as 
these: — Study  Christianity  in  the  bible  itself;  trace  out, 
in  your  own  heart,  the  truth  of  its  statements  concerning 
man;  pray  earnestly  to  God;  use  the  means  of  grace;  keep 
your  eye  fixed  on  Jesus  Christ,  the  great  object  of  the 
Christian   religion;  and  observe   how  Revelation   suits  the 

WHOLE  OF    your    CASE    AND    CONDITION. 

I.  Study  Christianity  in  the  Bible  itself;  compar- 
ing, in  the  first  place,  the  general  character  of  its  contents, 
with  the  state  of  the  world,  and  the  mass  of  evidence  ad- 
duced for  the  truth  of  the  gospel. 

Those  who  hesitate  about  Revelation,  know  nothing,  gen- 
erally speaking,  or  next  to  nothing,  of  the  Bible.  They  have 
never  attentively  read,  with  the  express  design  of  knowing 
and  obeying  the  will  of  God,  if  it  should  prove  to  be  found 
there,  the  pages  of  the  inspired  volume.  They  take  up 
their  notions  of  what  Christianity  is,  from  its  enemies;  from 
the  current  misrcprescntaiions  of  the  day;  from  a  few  in- 
sulated, and,  perhaps,  perverted  facts.  Tiiey  compare  some 
gross  mis-statements  of  the  doctrines  and  precepts  of  Chris- 
tianity, with  their  own  off-hand  judgment  and  taste,  or  even 


LECT.     XX.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  191 

inclinations;  and  upon  the  appearance  of  incongruity,  diffi- 
culty, impossibility,  they  doubt  of  the  Revelation  itself. 
In  this  way,  the  religion  which  they  profess  to  inquire  after, 
has  never  been  fairly  understood.  The  whole  question  has 
been  involved  in  the  obscurity  which  a  vain  and  careless 
w^orld,  or  a  corrupt  heart,  dilfuses,  like  mists,  about  the  un- 
welcome but  momentous  subject. 

This  may  have  been  your  case,  my  young  friends,  in  some 
measure;  but  it  must  not  be  your  case  any  longer.  If  you 
would  make  a  trial  of  the  practical  effects  of  Christianity 
upon  your  own  miiids,  you  must  understand  what  it  is;  what 
it  proposes  to  do  for  man;  what  it  discovers;  what  it  re- 
quires. To  do  this,  you  must  study  the  Bible  itself.  You 
must  come  up  to  the  fountain  of  life,  and  not  drink  at  the 
scanty  and  impure  streams  of  human  opinion  and  passion. 

Begin  with  the  gospels.  Read  for  once,  in  a  docile 
spirit,  and  as  one  feeling  something  of  his  ignorance  and 
demerit  before  Almighty  God,  the  narrative  of  the  life  of 
Christ,  his  birth,  his  miracles,  his  doctrine,  his  manner  of 
teaching,,  his  divine  conversations.  Something  strikes  you 
as  you  read.  You  feel  a  penetrating  awe  come  over  you  in 
the  presence  of  the  Son  of  God.  There  is  a  majesty  and 
authority  in  every  thing  he  did;  a  sweetness  and  attractive- 
ness which  cannot  but  arrest  your  attention.  You  perceive 
what  his  religion  proposes  to  do  for  man — to  impart  life. 
You  fmd  him  every  where  speak  of  bestowing  pardon — of 
raising  man  from  sin  and  condemnation — of  revealing  salva- 
tion in  the  ransom  of  the  cross.  You  stand  with  the  dis- 
ciples, and  are  astonished  at  Ids  doctrine,  whilst  he  speaks  as 
one  having  authority,  and  not  as  the  scribcsJ' 

You  have  now  fairly  begun;  you  are  interested;  you  have 
perused  carefully  the  gospels;  you  perceive  continual  refer- 
ences to  the  prophecies  of  a  preceding  dispensation  of  re- 
ligion. Turn  to  some  of  those  numerous  prophecies  which 
the  Evangelists  notice  as  accomplished  in  our  Lord's  life 
and  sufferings.  Read  the  prophet  Isaiah;  meditate,  with  a 
noble  penitent,*^  on  the  53rd  chapter.     You  are  thus  landed 

(b)  Matt.  vii.  28,  29.  (c)  Burnel's  Rochester. 


192  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XX. 

in  the  Old  Testament — the  patriarchal  ages,  and  the  econ- 
omy and  law  of  Moses.  Begin  the  Old  Testament  in  its 
order:  read  the  account  of  the  creation  and  fall  of  man; 
mark  the  call  of  Abraham,  after  a  lapse  of  two  thousand 
years,  when  idolatry,  in  consequence  of  that  fall,  had  over- 
spread the  world;  see  the  dispensation  of  Moses,  five  hun- 
dred years  later,  rising  out  of  the  redemption  from  Egypt. 
Follow  the  annals  of  the  people  of  Israel;  connect  the  his- 
torical books  with  the  contemporary  prophecies;  then  inter- 
sperse the  devotional  writings,  dwelling  specially  upon  the 
book  of  Psalms. 

What  is  the  general  impression  of  this  course  of  study? 
You  see  one  spirit  pervade  the  whole.  It  is  one  Revela- 
tion, divided  into  several  parts.  It  j^roposes  to  bring  man 
back  to  God;  it  opens  a  wonderful  plan  of  redemption, 
which  it  gradually  develops,  tilt,  in  the  later  prophets,  it 
melts  into  the  Evangelical  history.  It  bids  man  pray;  it 
calls  him  to  repent,  to  believe,  to  rely  on  the  mercy  of  God, 
through  an  atonement;  to  obey  conscience,  to  shun  the  so- 
ciety of  the  wicked.  What  does  it  promise?  Not  to  re- 
move all  the  evils  of  this  life,  which  are  the  consequences 
of  sin,  but  to  alleviate  the  most  pressing — to  give  pardon, 
peace,  strength,  consolation  in  this  world,  whilst  it  prepares 
man  for,  what  is  the  consummation  of  its  designs,  the  hap- 
piness of  another. 

With  these  discoveries,  or  rather  new  impressions  upon 
the  heart,  turn  now  to  the  apostolical  writings,  the  last  and 
finishing  part  of  the  inspired  volume,  composed  after  the 
ascension  of  our  Saviour,  and  tiie  promised  fulness  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

You  see  in  the  Epistles  all  the  practical  bearings  of 
Christianity  developed;  the  ends  of  Christ's  incarnation  and 
death;  the  virtue  of  his  sacrifice;  the  intention  of  the  Mo- 
saic ceremonies;  the  preparatory  and  imperfect  character 
of  the  legal  dispensation;  the  perfect  provisions  of  the  evan- 
gelical. Much  will  appear  to  you  mysterious,  diflicult,  in- 
comprehensible, in  the  details;  especially  at  the  first  peru- 
sal. But  you  have  now  some  humility  of  mind;  and  will 
allow  the  great  Creator  to  be  wiser  than  man,  the  creature 


LECT.     XX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  193 

of  a  day.  And  it  is  to  the  general  impression  made  upon 
you,  as  a  serious  inquirer,  anxious  f(ir  truth — conscious,  in 
some  degree,  of  demerit,  aware  of  weakness  and  ignorance 
— that  I  am  now  directing  your  thoughts.  I  w-oiild  draw 
you  off  from  the  consideration  of  the  gospel  in  the  mere 
aspect  of  its  mysteries,  to  the  practical  eflects  which  they 
are  designed  to  produce. 

You  see  Christianity  is  nothing  more  than  natural  religion 
amplified,  purged,  elevated,  rendered  practicable  by  a  stu- 
pendous act  of  mercy,  the  gift  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of 
God  to  die  for  sin,  and  of  the  renovating  Spirit  of  grace. 

Mark  the  effects  which  the  gospel  produced  on  the  hearts 
and  prospects  of  its  first  converts.  What  a  change,  what  a 
deliverance,  what  a  light  in  darkness,  what  a  joy  amidst  the 
miseries  of  a  pagan  world;  what  an  impress  of  God  upon 
the  soul  of  the  convert!  It  is  a  new  heart  communicated; 
a  new  life;  a  new  turn  and  bias  to  all  the  powers  of  the 
rational  nature;  a  birth  from  above. 

Close  now  the  sacred  book,  and  look  around  you  in  the 
world;  rccal  tlie  annals  of  the  past  ages;  retrace  the  his- 
tory of  mankind.  You  behold  everything  with  new  eyes; 
you  see  God  knows  the  state  of  man;  you  see  that  the  mis- 
ery, blindness,  perverseness,  corruption,  folly,  vices  of  man- 
kind; their  uncertainty  on  all  the  fundamental  points  of 
religion;  their  dread  of  God  as  an  enemy;  their  apprehen- 
sions of  futurity,  all  meet  and  agree  with  the  provisions  of 
the  gospel;  whilst  the  provisions  of  the  gospel  meet  and 
agree  with  these  wants.  The  phenomena  of  the  world 
around  you  exactly  correspond  with  the  statements  of  the 
Bible. 

Now  then,  put  these  things  together;  and  afterwards  re- 
flect on  the  mass  of  evidence  of  every  kind,  with  which  the 
Christian  religion  was  introduced  to  your  notice. 

I  ask,  if  already  some  new  sensations  do  not  spring  up  in 
your  bosomi*  1  ask,  if  some  fresh  hopes  do  not  visit  you  of 
attaining  truth.''  I  ask,  if  a  new  view  of  things  does  not 
dawn  upon  your  mind,  now  that  you  begin  in  earnest  to 
study  what  religion  is,  and  what  it  proposes  to  do  for  man. 
25 


194  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XX. 

Yes,  I  have  surely  gained  my  cause  thus  far!  Yes,  some 
new  persuasion  of  the  divinity  of  the  Scriptures  is  moving 
in  your  mind,  quite  different  from  the  traditional  assent  you 
once  gave!  Something  within  you  says,  "If  this  surprising 
exhibition  of  the  love  of  God  in  his  own  Son — if  this  prodig- 
ious scheme  of  redemption  be  but  true,  it  will  make  me  happy; 
it  will  relieve  me  from  the  darkness  and  agitation  and  doubt 
which  I  sometimes  feel.  And  why  should  it  not  be  true.''  Are 
my  prejudices,  or  those  of  the  world,  of  any  weight  on  such 
a  subject.''  How  can  the  gospel  be  otherwise  than  true.''  Is 
it  possible  that  Almighty  God  can  have  surrounded  an  im- 
posture with  such  authority  of  miracles;  with  such  fulfil- 
ments of  prophecy;  with  such  supernatural  aids  in  the  prop- 
agation, and  continuance,  and  effects  of  the  religion?  Is  it 
possible,  that,  with  such  a  suitableness  to  the  state  and 
wants  of  man;  with  such  a  sublime  system  of  doctrine;  with 
such  a  pure  morality;  with  so  divine  a  Founder;  with  such 
a  holy  tendency, — the  religion  should  be  false.''  No!  it  can- 
not be.  The  very  thought  is  absurd — impossible!  It  cannot 
be,  that  all  the  attestations  of  truth  should  be  a  mere  signet 
upon  a  forged  Revelation!  No — all  is  true.  I  leave,  for 
the  present,  difficulties  which  may,  perhaps,  be  cleared  up 
hereafter;  but  the  Bible  speaks  to  my  heart.  It  is  its  own 
best  defence;  it  carries  its  own  evidence  with  it;  it  is 
divine." 

II.     Trace  out,  in  the  next  place,  in  your  own  heart 

A^'D      CHARACTER,    THE     TRUTH     OF     THE    PARTICULAR    STATE- 
MENTS OF  THE  Bible,  as' to  the  condition  of  man  and  his 

GUILT    BEFORE    GoD. 

You  are  now  in  a  frame  of  mind  to  do  this;  you  are  mak- 
ing a  trial,  in  all  simplicity,  of  the  first  promises  of  Chris- 
tianity to  those  who  seek  her;  you  have  received  an  impres- 
sion from  the  perusal  and  comparison  of  the  contents  of  the 
Bible,  which  has  brought  you  out  from  the  mere  lameness 
of  educational  asseut.  Take,  then,  in  tiie  next  place,  one 
head  of  revealed  truth.  Verify  in  your  ow  n  heart  one  part 
of  the  Bible,  and  that  a  caj)ital  part;  a  part  on  which  all  the 
other  divisions  proceed;  a  part  which  I  allow  to  be  most 
distasteful  to  man  at  first,  but  yet  which,  if  once  exanjincd 


LECT.    XX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  195 

candidly  and  humbly,  will  be  found  to  correspond  with  mat- 
ter of  fact,  and  to  open  to  you  fully  the  design  of  the  whole 
Revelation. 

Read  again,  and  catch  the  impression  of  the  language  of 
sacred  Scripture,  as  to  the  state  of  man  since  the  fall;  as  to 
his  weakness,  blindness,  corruption,  perverseness,  propen- 
sity to  depart  from  God,  unaptness  to  what  is  spiritually 
good.  You  will  find  that  Revelation  is  addressed  through- 
out to  the  weak,  the  unworthy,  the  miserable;  and  that  if 
you  did  not  feel  yourself  to  be  of  this  number,  the  Bible 
would  not  be  suited  for  you.  But  go  on.  You  begin  to  be 
conscious  within  yourself  of  a  moral  disorder;  you  will  soon 
lose  your  high  opinion  of  yourself,  and  your  fond  notions  of 
self-righteousness. 

Consider  what  a  contradictory  creature  the  Bible  de- 
scribes man  to  be.  How  it  degrades  him  on  one  hand,  as 
to  his  actual  condition,  and  raises  him,  on  the  other,  as  to 
his  original  capacities,  as  we  formerly  showed.'*  Does  not 
this  picture  resemble  your  Is  not  this  the  exact  portrait, 
lineament  by  lineament,  of  your  heart.'' 

Proceed — read  the  history  of  the  church  and  of  the  world, 
as  given  in  the  faithful,  but  humiliating,  records  of  Revela- 
tion, with  the  view  of  better  discovering  the  state  of  man. 
What  are  the  annals  of  tiic  chosen  people?  what  are  the 
glimpses  given  of  mankind  and  the  pagan  nations?  what  are 
the  facts,  as  there  collected?  How  frightful  the  vices;  how 
unjust  and  interminable  the  wars;  how  debasing  the  idola- 
tries; how  profligate  the  cruelties  there  exhibited! 

From  the  history,  go  on  and  search  the  prophetical  and 
devotional  books;  examine  the  New  Testament;  read  the 
Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the  Epistles,  in  order  to 
see  what  man  is;  what  the  extent  of  his  misery  and  guilt! 
You  discover  the  same  features  in  every  part  of  the  Bible. 
From  the  commencement  to  the  close  of  the  sacred  canon, 
man  is  described,  is  addressed,  is  treated,  is  exhibited  as  a 
sinner,  guilty,  wandering  from  God,  condemned,  miserable, 
unable  to  deliver  himself 

(d)  Led.  xiv. 


19G  LECTURKS  ON  THE  [lECT.  XX. 

Now  look  within,  and  ask  yourself,  "Is  not  all  tins  truth, 
so  far  as  my  own  heart  can  be  a  specimen  of  tliat  of  others? 
Am  I  not  this  very  perverse,  wayward,  contradictory,  irres- 
olute creature?  Is  not  my  mind  as  prone  to  wickedness  as 
that  of  the  individuals  and  nations  of  whom  I  read?  The 
conviction  on  my  conscience  is  faint.  Self-love  struggles 
hard,  but  truth  will  make  its  way.  The  Bible  knows  me 
better  than  I  know  myself.  All  history,  and  all  experience, 
confirm  its  statements;  but,  what  is  to  rne  more  than  a  thou- 
sand arguments — my  own  heart  confirms  the  account.  I 
am  this  weak,  fallen  creature,  thus  depicted  in  the  sacred 
word." 

Read  now,  with  attention,  the  strong  passages  through- 
out the  Scriptures,  which  assert  that  dc|)ravity  of  man's  na- 
ture, as  a  point  of  doctrine,  from  which  these  histories  and 
confessions,  and  facts,  spring.  Com[>are,  for  example,  our 
Lord's  declaration  of  uhat  flows  from  the  human  heart, 
From  unthia,  out  of  the  heart  of  man,  proceed  evil  thoughts, 
adulteries,  fornications,  murders,  thefts,  covetousness,  wicked- 
ness, deceit,  lasciviotisness,  an  evil  eye,  pride,  blasphemy,  fool- 
ishness;'' with  this  assertion.  Thai  no  man  can  come  unto 
him,  except  the  Father  draw  himS  And  take  both  passages, 
and  compare  them  with  St.  Paul's  statement  o^  the  human 
heart  being  enmity  against  God;  of  there  being  in  our  flesh 
no  good  thing;  of  man  being  far  from  God,  alienated  in  his 
mind  by  icicked  2corks,  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.^  Then 
go  back  to  the  first  pages  of  Revelation,  and  meditate'on  the 
declaration.  Every  imagination  of  mafias  heart  is  only  evil 
continually.  And  let  tire  holy  Psalmist  give  in  his  testi- 
mony: /  ivas  shapcn  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my  mother 
conceive  me. 

You  see,  all  conspires  to  the  same  result.  The  general 
and  demonstrable  foct  with  regard  to  man,  is,  that  the  habit 
of  iiis  heart  is  dislike  and  resistance  to  the  Creator  who 
gave  him  birth.  The  charge  is  a  gloomy  one;  but  shrink  not 
from   the  consideration   of  it.       A   patient  does  not  shrink 

(o)  Mark  vii.  21,  22.  (f )  John  vi.  44. 

(g)  Rom.  viii.  7;  Rom.  vii.  18;  Epii.  ii.  1;  Col.  i.  21. 


LECT.    XX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  197 

from  knowing  his  bodily  maladies,  in  order  to  obtain  a 
cure;  he  overcomes  his  rcluctanct.>  to  entertain  a  bad  opin- 
ion of  himself;  he  overcomes  his  reluctance  to  find  the  dis- 
ease is  deeply  seated,  and  has  infected  his  whole  frame; 
he  overcomes  his  reluctance  to  be  told  that  a  totally  new 
method  of  treatment  is  indispensable.  So  do  you,  as  to  the 
infinitely  more  important  question  of  your  spiritual  condi- 
tion. Nothing  so  touches  the  heart  as  this  discovery  of  the 
secret  movements  of  man's  perverseness  and  corruption. 

Two  things  strike  you:  the  one  is,  that  you  had  never 
attended  to  the  state  of  your  heart,  or  your  spiritual  rela- 
tion to  God,  but  had  been  going  on  in  ignorance  of  your- 
self and  of  your  first  and  most  momentous  duties — this  is 
one  discovery;  you  had  been  living  as  without  God  in  the 
world.  The  other  is,  that  when  you  attempt  to  do  good, 
your  heart  does  not  follow  the  dictates  of  the  understanding, 
but  breaks  like  a  deceitful  bow — falls  short,  turns  aside,  and 
betrays  you. 

Tiicse  are  the  very  things  the  Bible  tells  you.  Go  on,  then, 
in  the  further  study  of  tliis  wonderful  book — it  will  lay  open 
the  secrets  of  your  heart  more  and  more.  You  cannot  now 
be  satisfied  without  a  full  acquaintance  with  the  truth  of 
things.  You  say  to  those  around  you,  as  the  Samaritan 
woman.  Come,  see  a  man  thai  told  me  all  that  ever  1  did; 
is  not  this  the  Christ? — Yes,  he  is  the  Christ:  the  book  which 
reveals  this,  is  the  word  of  God — the  religion  which  pro- 
ceeds on  the  knowledge  of  the  human  heart,  is  the  true  re- 
ligion. Your  general  impression  of  awe  and  confidence, 
produced  by  the  perusal  of  the  Bible,  is  now  deepened  into 
some  personal  conviction  of  sinfulness.  The  single  part  of 
it  which  you  have  taken  and  verified  by  your  own  state  and 
character,  gives  you  an  assurance  that  it  is  th.e  word  of  God, 
more  practical  and  of  another  kind  from  that  which  sprung 
from  the  general  comparison  of  the  parts  of  the  Revelation 
with  each  other,  and  your  discovery  of  its  unity,  harmony, 
and  high  end.  You  have  now  found  out  your  disease,  and 
are  \n  a  way  to  a  cure.  You  now  see  how  unreasona- 
ble was  your  former  state  of  mind,  when  you  had  only  an 
educational    prejudice  in  favor  of  Christianity,  when  you 


198  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XX. 

cherished  doubts,  and  rested  satisfied  in  ignorance  of  the 
Bible  and  of  yourself  You  see  also  the  unreasonableness 
of  the  conduct  of  others,  who  are  acting  now  as  you  yourself 
once  acted.  You  see  how  entirely  their  aversion  from  the 
holy  character  of  God,  and  the  humiliating  doctrine  of  man's 
apostacy  from  him,  springs  from  that  very  depravity  which 
they  deny,  and  accounts  to  you  for  their  negligence  and 
unbelief.  You  see,  in  a  word,  that  this  one  truth  of  man's 
corruption,  opens  the  whole  state  of  the  world,  of  the  heart, 
of  the  scheme  of  redemption,  of  the  necessities  and  the  mis- 
eries of  man,  of  the  ends  and  importance  of  Revelation. 

But  I  hasten — 

III.    To    offer    anotiier    direction.     Pray  fervently  to 

Gor>    FOR    HIS    GRACE    TO    ACCOMPANY    YOUR    ENDEAVOURS. 

Careless  and  profane  people  never  pray;  the  proud  and 
thoughtless  never  pray;  the  supercilious  inquirer  never 
prays.  Formerly  you  never  prayed.  You  may  have  admit- 
ted generally,  on  the  footing  of  natural  conscience,  the  ob- 
ligation of  prayer  to  God,  the  Creator  and  Preserver  of  all 
men.  You  could  not  help  in  theory  admitting  this,  espec- 
ially with  the  reflex  light  of  Christianity  cast  about  you. 
But  you  never  prayed.  You  may  have  addressed  the  su- 
preme Being  in  a  form  of  devotion;  but  you  never  prayed. 
You  may  have  uttered  a  sigh  of  anguish,  a  bitter  complaint, 
an  insulated  application  for  some  temporal  deliverance;  but 
you  never  prayed — that  is,  you  never  besought  Almighty 
God  in  earnest  for  spiritual  benefits.  You  never  fervently 
and  humbly  begged  of  God,  as  the  Father  of  mercies,  for 
the  blessings  of  instruction,  spiritual  strength,  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins,  salvation. 

But  now  you  are  prepared  and  disposed  to  this  duty. 
You  want  to  make  the  trial  of  the  sacred  influences  of 
Christianity.  You  want  to  get  rid  of  doubt  and  hesitation, 
and  to  feel  the  obligations  of  revealed  religion.  You  are 
struck  with  the  general  impression  of  the  Bible.  You  are 
penetrated  with  the  view  which  it  presents  of  your  own 
heart.  There  is  a  sympathy  now  created,  or  rather  begin- 
ning to  be  created,  between  the  truths  of  Revelation  and 
your  state  of  mind. 


LECT.  XX.]  EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITY,  199 

Study  then,  in  the  next  place,  what  the  Bible  says  on  the 
subject  of  prayer.  Make  the  prayers  found  there  your  own. 
Turn  to  the  Book  of  Psalms,  and  say  from  your  own  heart, 
Lord,  open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  see  wondrous  things  in 
thy  law.^'-  Teach  me  to  do  thy  will,  far  thou  art  my  God;  thy 
Spirit  is  good,  lead  me  into  the  land  of  uprightness.^ 

Open  the  Prophets.  Pray  with  Isaiah,  Let  me  come  and 
go  up  to  thy  mountain,  O  Lord,  to  thy  house,  O  God  of  Jacob; 
and  do  thou  teach  me  of  thy  xoays,  that  1  may  walk  in  thy  paths  J 
Pray  according  to  the  promise  in  Ezekiel,  Give  me,  O  Lord, 
a  new  heart,  and  put  a  new  spirit  within  me,  and  take  away  the 
stony  heart  out  of  my  jlesh,  and  give  me  a  heart  of  fesh.^ 

Go  to  the  gospels.  Read  the.  blessed  Saviour's  promises 
made  to  prayer;  especially  of  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Spirit — Jlsk  and  ye  shall  receive,  seek  and  ye  shall  find,  knock 
and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you.  For  if  ye,  being  evil,  know 
how  to  give  good  things  to  your  children,  how  much  more 
shall  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  give  his  Holy  Spirit 
TO  THEM  THAT  ASK  HIM.'  Appioacli,  then,  and  make  your 
prayer;  ask,  seek,  knock.  Pray  especially  for  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  assist,  to  illuminate,  to  renew  you;  to  produce  in  you 
inW  those  effects  which  in  your  reading  of  the  Bible,  you 
observed  were  produced  in  the  first  Christian  converts. 

From  the  gospels,  proceed  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles; 
read  tlie  inquiries,  t!ie  prayers  of  the  true  penitents.  Make 
those  inquivics  and  those  prayers  your  own.  Say  with  the 
hearers  of  St.  Peter  and  the  apostles,  J\Jen  and  brethren, 
what  shall  we  ^^^  Say  with  the  Philippian  jailor,  Sirs, 
what  must  I  do  to  be  savrd?''  Fall  prostrate  before  the  Al- 
mighty with  Saul  of  Tarsus,  and  say,  Lord,  u-hat  ivilt  thou 
have  me  to  dol  ° 

Then  open  the  epistles,  and  pray,  as  St.  Paul  does  for 
the  Lphesians,  That  the  eyes  of  your  understanding  may  be 
enlightened:  P  or  as  the  same  apostle  for  the  Collossians, 
That  you  may  be  filed  with  the  knowledge  of  God's  ivill  in  all 
ivisdom  and  spiritual  understand ing/i 

(h)  Psalm  cxix.  18.  (i)  Psalm  cxliv.  10.  (j)  Isaiah  ii.  3. 

(k)  Ezek.  xxxvi.  2G.  (I)  Lukcxi.  9-1  (m)  Acts  ii.  37. 

(n)  Acts  xvi.  30.  (o)  Acts  ix.  C.  (p)  Eph.  i.  18. 
(q)  Col.  i.  9. 


200  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XX. 

Proceed  thus  in  tracing  the  spirit  of  prayer  difTused 
throughout  the  IJihlc,  and  adopt  the  forms  there  left  for 
♦  your  direction.  Prayer  is  the  altitude  in  which  revelation 
would  place  you.  All  its  blessings  are  granted  to  prayer. 
Approach  God  thus,  though  it  be  with  feebleness,  with  con- 
scious demerit.  You  must  depend  upon  his  grace  in  your 
religious  inquiries,  as  you  must  depend  upon  his  providence 
in  the  natural  duties  and  concerns  of  life.  If  you  desire  to 
make  an  experiment  of  the  promises  of  Christianity,  you 
must  do  it  in  the  prescribed  method;  that  method  is  self- 
renunciation — prayer  for  grace — sense  of  demerit — ac- 
knowledgment of  weakness  and  guilt.  If  you  come  to  the 
Bible  in  pride,  you  will  depart  empty  away.  The  great 
God  is  not  to  be  mocked,  to  be  contemned,  to  be  insulted 
by  a  worm  like  man.  If  he  condescends  to  make  promises 
of  inward  effects  on  the  heart,  of  a  seal  of  peace  and 
consolation,  of  answers  to  prayer,  of  an  experimental 
knowledge  of  the  blessings  of  Christianity,  these  can 
only  be  had  in  a  way  of  humility  and  supplication. 
They  must  be  sought,  not  demanded;  implored  as  a  boon, 
not  exacted  as  a  right;  obtained  in  the  spirit  of  penintent 
contrition,  not  seized  with  the  hand  of  presumption  and 
self-conceit. 

But  I  need  not  dwell  on  this.  The  discoveries  you 
have  made  of  your  own  heart,  have  levelled  in  the  dust  the 
high  tower  of  pride  and  self-justificaiion  whicii  you  had 
built  up,  and  have  brought  you  to  penitence.  ^  ou  are  pre- 
pared to  seek,  with  the  eagerness  of  a  beggar  imploring  an 
alms,  the  bounties  of  the  divine  grace.  A'ready  you  begin 
to  pray.  Your  heart  desires,  and  expressvis  what  it  desires. 
Religion  interests  you.  You  feel  you/  wants.  All  is  in 
progress  for  your  satisfaction. 

IV.  Let  me  advise  you,  in  the  next  place,  to  wail  for  the 
gradual  attainment  of  what  you  seek  in'  the  usk  of  the 

MEANS  WHICH  GoD  HAS  PROMISED  TO  BLESS,  AND  IN  THE 
CONSCIENTIOUS      PRACTICE      OF     DUTY     AS      YOU     DISCOVER     IT. 

The  more  you  study  the  Bible,  the  more  you  will  see  that 
you  are  placed  in  the  midst  of  a  system  of  means;  that  you 
are  under  a  moral  government;  that  God  bestows  his  bless- 


LECT.  XX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  201 

ings  upon  the  waiting  soul;  that  nothing  can  be  done  hastily 
or  mechanically,  but  that  we  must  act  as  reasonable  and 
accountable  beings,  and  humbly  expect  the  blessings  prom- 
ised in  the  way  prescribed.  You  are  now  prepared  for  this. 
Prayer  is  a  waiting  upon  God,  the  attending  dnibj  at  his  gates, 
the  loatching  at  the  posts  of  his  doors/  Probably  the  idea  you 
once  formed  of  religious  experience,  was  that  of  some- 
thing violent,  sudden,  distinguishable  at  once  from  the  opera- 
tions of  your  own  mind;  something  involving  an  irrational 
and  accountable  excitement;  such  is  the  notion  which  "the 
disputer  of  this  world"  ^  forms  of  the  experience  of  relig- 
ion. -You  find  it  very  difi'erent:  you  find  the  influences  of 
grace  are  gradual,  soft,  imperceptible  at  the  lime,  congru- 
ous with  the  rational  nature  of  man,  and  chiefly  to  be  traced 
in  their  eflects;  and  yet  mighty  and  eflicacious;  for  as  the 
wind  blowcth  ivhere  it  listeth,  and  ice  hear  the  sound  thereof, 
but  cannot  (ell  whence  it  comeih,  nor  xchiiher  it  goeih;  so  is  every 
one  that  is  horn  of  the  Spirit/  In  these  means  of  grace — 
that  is,  in  prayer,  in  reading  God's  word,  in  -attending  the 
public  preaching  of  the  gospel,  in  the  conversation  and  ad- 
vice of  the  pious — you  must  wait  for  further  light;  and  you 
shall  not  wait  in  vain.  In  the  expectations  thus  raised 
there  is  a  pledge  of  their  fulfilment. 

In  the  meanwhile,  delay  not  the  time  to  do  what  you 
know  to  be  your  duty,  and  to  avoid  what  you  know  to  be 
sin.  To  him  that  ordereth  his  conversation  aright,  will  I  show 
the  salvation  of  God, "  is  tlie  Almighty's  promise.  In  doing 
the  divine  will,  a  thousand  things  will  become  more  plain, 
and  a  thousand  difficulties  will  sink  before  you.  In  attempt- 
ing obedience,  you  will  perceive  more  sensibly  the  truths 
already  believed;  especially  that  of  your  own  corruption 
and  inability.  In  this  way  you  will  meet  God,  and  testify 
the  sincerity  of  your  desire  to  experience  his  grace.  In 
this  way  you  will  discover  your  need  of  that  peculiar  reve- 
lation of  mercy  to  which  I   would  now  call  your  attention. 

V.  Let  me  counsel  you  to  keep  your  eye  fixed  on  the 
GREAT  object    WHICH    Chuistianitv  REVEALS,  as  thc  Only 

(r)  Prov.  viii.  3-J..  (s)  1  Cor.  i.  20. 

(I)  John  iii.  8.  (u)  Psalm  I.  23. 

26 


202  LECTURES    ON    THE  [ 


LECT.    XX. 


source  of  relief  and  consolation.  All  I  have  at  present 
said,  is  introductory.  The  person  and  glory  of  Jesus  Christ 
our  Saviour  is  the  centre-point,  the  main  characteristic,  the 
distinffuishinjT  fact  of  the  whole  of  Revelation.  You  are 
surely  now  prepared  to  behold  the  mysterious  cross  on 
which  he  expired,  as  a  sacrifice  for  sin.  You  are  eager  to 
receive  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  for  which  all 
your  previous  inquiries  have  been  disposing  you.  You 
want  pardon;  you  want  peace  with  God;  you  want  some- 
thing as  a  ground  of  merit  in  approaching  the  throne  of 
grace — you  find  nothing  in  yourself  but  infirmity,  sin,  guilt. 
Behold,  then,  the  person  of  Christ,  the  substitute  for  man, 
bearing  sin  in  his  own  body  on  the  cross:  dying,  the  just 
for  the  unjust,  to  bring  you  to  God.  Read  in  his  death, 
pardon,  peace,  and  salvation.  Look  unto  him  whom  you 
have  pierced,  and,  while  you  mourn  for  sin,  rejoice  in  the 
fororiveness  which  his  sacrifice  promises.  All  blessings 
flow  from  that  great  event.  God  is  reconciled — the  law 
is  satisfied — the  moral  government  of  the  Almighty  is  vin- 
dicated— and  the  Holy  Spirit  is  procured  and  diflfused;  and 
in  the  gift  of  that  divine  agent  (for  redemption,  as  we  have 
frequently  noticed,  reveals  the  triune  source  of  mercy  to 
man — the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.)  all  bless- 
ings of  grace,  regeneration,  power  to  believe,  fortitude,  joy, 
resignation,  hope,  obedience,  are  virtually  included. 

You  will  doubtless  find  a  thousand  difficulties  start  up  in 
your  mind,  and  oppose  the  simple  act  of  faith,  by  which 
you  are  to  receive  those  benefits.  Though  you  exercise 
faith  in  human  things  every  day  of  your  life,  yet  when  you 
attempt  to  apply  this  principle  to  divine,  a  difilculty  arises. 
But  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  author  of  fiiith.  Pray  to  him  for 
the  grace  to  believe.  Say,  Lord,  I  believe,  help  thou  mine 
unbelicfj  Silence  your  imaginations,  your  reasonings,  your 
objections.  God  reveals  tlie  infinite  gift  of  his  Son;  God 
declares  it  to  be  the  effect  of  his  love  to  man;  God  points 
out  the  grand  ends  for  which  the  gift  is  made,  and  the 
practical  uses  for  which  it  is  to  be  employed.  But  God 
does  not  ask  your  opinion  of  the   redemption   itself:  you 

(v)  Mnrk  ix.  2\. 


LECT.   XX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  203 

are  no  judge  of  God's  incomprehensible  reasons.  If  you 
wish  for  a  real  ac([uaintance  with  the  e(Vect  of  his  religion 
upon  tlie  heart,  you  must  take  the  method  he  prescribes. 
You  must  believe,  obey,  trust  in  liis  ivcll-beloved  Son,  in 
whom  he  is  loell  pleased.''''  You  do  so.  See — the  struggle 
is  over.  Your  sense  of  pressing  exigency;  the  anguish  of 
an  alarmed  conscience;  the  conviction  that  God^s  ihovghts 
are  not  your  thoughts,  neither  your  ways  his  ways;  but  that  as 
the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  his  ways  higher 
than  your  xvays,  and  his  thoughts  than  your  thoughts,^  carries 
every  thing  with  it.  You'  cast  yourself  at  the  feet  of  the 
Saviour,  and  endeavor  to  rely  upon  his  word  for  all  the 
blessings  of  salvation.  You  implore  the  Holy  Spirit  to  en- 
able you  to  see  his  glory  more  distinctly,  and  rejoice  in  his 
cross  with  more  delight,  and  follow  his  footsteps  in  the 
obedience  of  your  life.  All  this  is  done  with  weakness  and 
trembling  of  heart;  but  It  is  done  with  simplicity;  and  in- 
creasing vi"or  will  follow. 

VI.    Let  me  direct  you  now  to  compare  all   the  parts  of 
Christianity  as  you  have  gone  over  them,  and  observe  how 

THEY  CONSTITUTE  A  WHOLE,  ANU  MEET  ALL  THE  NECESSI- 
TIES OF  YOUR  CASE.  Study  Still  the  Bible  in  which  these 
truths  and  the  uses  of  them  are  contained.  There  you  be- 
gan, there  you  must  continue  your  search.  You  have 
caught  its  general  impression  and  main  design  upon  man — 
you  have  verified  in  your  own  heart  its  statements  about  the 
guilt  and  ruin  of  sin— you  have  adopted  the  prayers  which 
it  taught  you  to  offer — you  have  persevered  in  the  means  of 
instruction  it  presented  to  you — you  have  been  brought  up 
to  its  main  discovery,  the  person  and  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of 
God — you  have  perceived  the  divine  agent,  who  applies  all 
its  truths  to  the  heart,  the  Holy  Spirit.  Reflect  now  upon 
the  bearing  of  all  these  things.  Observe  how  they  meet  all 
the  case  of  man,  (as  we  observed  in  a  previous  Lecture,  y) 
how  they  supply  his  want  ov  merit,  by  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ,  and  his  want  of  stuiongth,  by  the  operations  f)f 
the  blessed  Spirit.  Mark  how  they  bring  him  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  most  important   truths  relating  to   himself,  his 

(,«)  Matt.  iii.  12.  (x)  Isainh  Iv.  !i.  9.  (y)  Lpci.  xiv. 


204  LECTUIIKS    ON    THK  [l.ECT.    XX. 

duty,  his  fall,  his  guilt,  his  end.  Consider  how  they  exactly 
fill  up  the  void  which  natural  religion  could  not  su|)[)ly;  the 
gaping  void,  created  by  the  want  of  sanction,  th(j  want  of 
a  distinct  knowledge  of  the  supreme  Being,  the  want  of  a 
revealed  and  intelligible  moral  law,  the  want  of  a  way  of 
pardon,  the  want  of  motives  and  strength  for  obedience, 
the  want  of  peace  and  consolation  of  conscience,  and  the 
want  of  an  express  assurance  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
and  an  eternal  judgment.'^  Yes,  Christianity  is  the  natural 
and  essential  religion  for  which  God  first  created  man,  re- 
published, supplied,  restored,  enlarged,  purified,  ennobled 
with  an  additional  remedial  dispensation  by  ihe  Son  and 
Spirit  of  God.  How  grand,  how  efficacious,  how  complete 
is  the  scheme  of  R.evelation!  How  it  meets  all  your  desiresj 
responds  to  your  thirst  after  happiness;  answers  to  all  the 
capacities  of  your  rational  being;  unites  the  glory  of  the 
Creator  with  the  welfare  of  the  creature!  Nothing  is  so 
reasonable,  so  elevating,  so  consolatory,  so  adapted  for  man, 
as  the  Christian  religion.  You  feel  this  in  some  degree. 
You  feel  that  all  you  need  now,  is  a  larger  measure  of  its 
grace  and  a  more  entire  submission  to  its  commands — that 
what  is  wanting,  is  not  in  Christianity,  but  in  yourself;  not 
in  its  provisions,  but  in  your  obedience;  not  in  the  promises 
and  supplies  which  it  offers,  but  in  your  acceptance  and 
adherence.  Feeble  as  your  attainments  are, .  you  are  per- 
suaded fully — you  are  convinced, — that,  in  proportion  as 
you  advance  in  them^  you  shall  advance  in  happiness, 
advance  in  holiness,  advance  in  peace  and  consolation  and 

joy- 

And  now,  after  offering  these  directions,  let  me  request 
you  to  look  back  on  the  course  which  you  have  passed,  and 
to  observe  the  result.  Let  me  ask  you,  whether  the  Chris- 
tian religion  has  not  fulfilled  in  you  all  its  promises,  and 
whether  you  are  not  an  instance  of  one  who  has  made  a 
trial  of  its  proffered  blessings,  and  has  obtained  an  inward 
experience  qnd  witness  of  their  reality.  Tliis  may  not  have 
struck  you.  At  an  early  stage  of  your  in(iiiiries.  it  could 
not.    Even  now  it  may  not  at  times  be  very  apparent.     It  is 

(■/.)  Led.  ii. 


LECT.    X.\".]  EVIDENCES     OF     CHRISTIANITY.  205 

rather  upon  reflection  and  at  intervals,  that  you  will  be  able 
to  trace  out  tiic  accomplishment  of  the  blessings  of  Chris- 
tianity in  your  own  case.  But  after  a  period,  perhaps  a 
considerable  period — for  the  minuter  diflerences  in  each 
inquirer's  case  are  multiplied  and  various — you  may  be  led 
to  reflect  thus: 

"Surely  I  am  myself  a  witness  of  the  truth  of  Christian- 
ity. I  feel  that  its  general  character  is  pregnant  with  bless- 
ings to  man.  Its  description  of  my  own  case  is  most  accu- 
rate. Its  s|>irit  of  prayer  and  the  models  it  leaves  me,  are 
most  suited  to  my  feelings.  The  system  of  means  in  which 
it  places  me,  becomes  the  glorious  God,  and  is  adapted  to 
man  his  reasonable  creature.  The  person  of  Christ,  his 
condescension,  his  sacrifice,  the  gift  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  are 
beyond  measure  stupendous  and  consolatory.  The  com- 
pleteness of  the  whole  Revelation  carries  with  it  the  impress 
of  the  areat  and  jjood  Beins  from  wliom  it  came. 

"And  am  not  I  an  instance  of  its  truth  to  its  promises?  1 
find  an  awe  upon  my  mind;  I  f(;el  a  conviction  of  my  sinful- 
ness; I  am  led  to  pray;  I  use  the  methods  of  instruction  ap- 
pointed me;  I  behold  the  Lamb  of  God;  I  trust  to  a  divine 
sanctifier;  I  see  every  thing  in  Christianity  which  I  can 
want  or  desire,  or  am  capable  of  receiving; — and  what  is  all 
this,  but  the  very  impression  which  Christianity  declares 
shall  be  produced  in  the  heart  of  every  willing  student  of 
her  records?  What  is  this  but  an  inward  witness  to  its 
truth? 

"But  I  have  more:  I  have  had  many  answers  to  my 
prayers — I  have  sought  grace,  and  I  have  found  it.  I  have 
implored  teaching,  and  it  has  been  granted.  I  have  asked 
for  the  Holy  Spirit  and  I  have  not  asked  in  vain.  I  have 
begged  of  God  for  strength  and  wisdom  and  consolation;  and 
I  have  obtained  tliese  blessings. 

"More  than  this:  I  am  a  monument,  unworthy  as  I  am  to 
speak  on  such  a  theme,  of  the  power  and  grace  of  the  gos- 
pel. It  has  brought  me,  or  at  least  is  bringing  me,  as  I  trust, 
from  darkness  unto  light,  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto 
God.  It  has  changed  my  proud  and  stubborn  heart.  It  has 
already  made  me  happy  to  a  certain  extent  in  believing, 


206  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XX. 

and  it  sets  before  me  a  crown  of  glory  which  fadeth  not 
away. 

"And  as  to  the  holy  influence  of  Christianity,  is  it  not  al- 
ready apparent  in  me.'  Ani  I  not  more  virtuous,  more  con- 
tented in  my  mind,  more  diligent  in  my  calling,  more  tender 
in  my  family,  more  subdued  in  my  tempers  and  conduct 
than  I  was  before.'' 

"And  as  to  the  prospects  of  the  future,  have  I  not  a  dawn 
of  hope.''  Is  not  something  of  the  peculiar  glory  and  excel- 
lency of  the  gospel  apparent  to  me,  and  is  it  not  inviting 
me  onwards.''  Have  I  not  support  under  afflictions  here, 
and  a  humble  expectation  of  beholding  my  God  in  peace 
hereafter.'' 

"What  more,  then,  do  I  need.''  I  formerly  talked  of  the 
evidences  of  Christianity;  but  I  never  sought  to  be  satisfied 
upon  safe  grounds.  I  formerly  inquired,  but  with  a  wish 
not  to  find  the  religion  true.  I  formerly  scorned  the  devo- 
tional spirit,  and  the  distinguishing  doctrines,  and  the  pure 
morals  of  Christianity:  I  had  my  reward.  I  found  no  peace; 
I  found  no  satisfying  conviction;  I  remained  a  proud,  care- 
less, discontented,  unhappy  creature;  I  was  living  in  the 
practice  of  many  vices,  and  in  the  omission  of  many  duties. 
But  now  I  am  at  peace;  now  I  pursue  after  holiness;  now  I 
acquiesce,  at  least  1  desire  to  do  so,  in  tlie  will,  the  whole 
revealed  will  of  God;  now  I  ascribe  it  to  the  undeserved 
goodness  of  God,  that  I  was  led  in  earnest  to  make  this  in- 
quiry, which  I  trust  will  issue  in  salvation. 

"I  am  now  only  ashamed  of  my  former  perverseness  and 
rebellion  of  heart;  I  mourn  that  I  should  so  long  have  re- 
sisted truth,  hardened  my  conscience,  grieved  the  blessed 
Spirit,  and  provoked  God.  I  lament  also  over  my  present 
weakness  of  faith,  irresolution,  inconsistency.  But  I  feel 
that  Christianity  has  fulfilled,  and  more  than  fulfilled,  all 
its  promises  to  its  disciples.  I  feel  that  it  makes  me  a  bet- 
ter man;  that  it  keeps  me  from  sin;  that  it  urges  me  to  duty; 
that  it  provides  me  with  resources  of  pardon  and  strength; 
unites  me  to  my  Saviour;  makes  my  heart  a  temple  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  gives  me  an  anticipation  of  eternal  glory. 
Whatever  others  may  do,  I  shall  hold  by  the  Christian  doc- 


LECT.  XX.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  207 

trine;  whatever  others  may  say,  I  shall  declare  the  inward 
testimony  to  its  truth,  of  which  I  am  a  partaker;  however 
others  may  depart  from  the  profession  of  Clirist,  it  will  be 
my  desire  to  say,  Lord,  to  whom  shall  I  go%  Thou  hast  the 
words  of  everlasting  life;  and  I  believe  and  am  sure  that  Thou 
art  that  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God." 

Such  is  some  inadequate  sketch  of  the  feelings  of  one 
who  is  in  earnest  about  Christianity,  and  makes  a  trial  of  its 
grace. 

The  cases  of  individuals  are  so  various,  that  a  thousand 
differences  will  arise  in  each:  but  the  main  features  will  be 
the  same;  and  the  directions  and  the  result  are,  therefore, 
easily  rendered  applicable.  Let  the  inquirer  study  the  Bi- 
ble with  an  application  to  his  own  heart;  let  him  pray  for 
divine  aid;  let  him  use  the  means  of  grace;  let  him  believe 
in  the  Saviour  and  pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit:  let  him  mark 
the  complete  adaptation  of  Christianity  to  all  his  wants;  and 
he  shall  find  a  gradual  effect  produced  on  his  heart,  which 
is  the  seal  and  inward  witness  of  the  truth  of  the  prqmises 
on  which  he  relies. 

And  what  shall  I  further  say,  in  concluding  these  Lectures 
on  the  inward  test  of  Christianity.^  What  shall  I  add  after 
the  remarks  made  in  the  last  discourse  on  the, nature  of  the 
argument,  its  scriptural  authority,  the  facts  on  which  it 
rests,  and  its  singular  importance?  What,  after  the  direc- 
tions offered  in  the  present.^ 

Let  every  one  before  me  enter,  for  himself  upon  this  mo- 
mentous question  of  the  practical  experiment  of  the  Chris- 
tian promises.  Take  the  preparatory  steps  at  least.  Con- 
sider all  the  admissions  you  are  compelled  to  make  as  be- 
lieving in  the  being  and  attributes  of  God.  Remember  the 
primitive  and  indissoluble  obligations  which  chain  you  to 
the  throne  of  the  Almighty.  Call  to  mind  the  responsibility 
you  arc  under  for  all  you  know  and  all  you  might  have 
known. 

Recollect,  especially,  these  two  things:  Unless  you  make 
a  practical  trial  of  Christianity,  your  historical  faith  will 
only  increase  your  condemnation;  and,  If  you  do  make  a 


208  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XX. 

trial,  you  will  have  no  need  to  put  to  an  experiment  any 
thini?  else  relating  to  religion. 

I.  I  say,  UNLESS  you  make  a  trial  or  practical  re- 
ligion, YOUR  merely  historical  FAITH  WILL  ONLY  IN- 
CREASE YOUR  CONDEMNATION.  For  you  vvill  not  have  to 
plead  that  you  did  not  know  Christianity;  you  cannot  say 
you  had  not  received  it  as  a  divine  Revelation;  you  can 
never  assert  that  you  were  not  warned  and  admonished  of 
your  duty,  your  danger,  your  remedy.  Your  historical 
faith,  then,  if  it  do  not  result  in  submission  of  heart  to  the 
yoke  of  the  gospel,  will  turn  your  accuser.  It  brought  you 
up  to  the  throne  of  mercy — before  which  you  refused  to 
bend;  it  compelled  you  to  admit  the  truth  of  a  religion — 
against  which  you  closed  your  hegrt;  it  made  known  the 
claims  of  a  heavenly  Father  and  placed  you  before  his  feet 
— and  you  spurned  his  grace  and  salvation;  it  presented  to 
you  a  way  of  making  an  experiment  of  his  promises — and 
you  rejected  the  offer.  What,  then,  will  be  your  condem- 
nation, if  you  persist  in  your  rebellion  of  heart  before 
God.^  O,  dare  not  his  vengeance!  O,  provoke  him  not  to 
take  his  Holy  Spirit  from  you!  O,  harden  not  your  heart, 
like  Pharaoh  of  old;  but  yield  yourselves  unto  God.  Un- 
know  what  you  have  learned  of  truth,  you  cannot.  Escape 
from  its  obligations  you  cannot.  But  you  may  yet  seize  the 
advantages  offered  you;  you  may  yet  enter  on  the  practical 
duties  of  the  religion  which  you  profess;  you  may  yet  turn 
your  historical  knowledge  to  its  proper  purposes,  by  con- 
sidering the  argument  we  have  been  enforcing,  and  follow- 
ing the  direetions  which  we  have  given. 

II.  Remember,  also,  that  if  you  once  make  a  trial  of 
real  Christianity,  you  will  have  no  need  of  putting  to 

THE    experiment    ANY    OTHER     FORM     OP     RELIGION    OR    IRBE- 

LiGiON  EVER  KNOWN:  for  this  important  reason — that  you 
have  already  been  trying,  in  fact,  all  your  past  life,  one  or 
other  of  the  pretended  religious  systems  which  are  abroad 
in  the  world. 

Infidelity  makes  fair  promises.  Vou  need  not  try  it; 
you  know  already  too  much  of  the  evil  heart  of  unbelief.'^ 

(a)  llcb.  iii.  12. 


LECT.     XX.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  209 

Tlie  tendency  to   infidelity  is  the   cause  of  all  your  reluc- 
tance, coldness  and  misery. 

Will  you  try  idolatry?  The  first  converts  to  Christian- 
ity, and  tlie  converts  from  heathenism  in  every  age,  have 
tried  it;  and  your  own  natural  propensity  to  idolize  the  crea- 
ture is  surely  painful  enough  to  convince  you  that  idolatry 
has  nothing  to  offer. 

Will  you  make  an  experiment  of  Mahometanism.''  What! 
when  it  flatters  all  those  principles  of  pride,  and  sensuality, 
and  contempt  of  others,  and  love  of  voluptuous  pleasures, 
which  you  have  tQO  much  tried? 

There  is  nothing  left  untried  by  you,  but  real  Christian- 
ity. Enter,  then,  upon  this  important  experiment.  While 
none  but  the  true  Christian  can  form  a  just  opinion  of  divine 
Revelation,  every  true  believer  can  form  a  sufficient  judg- 
ment of  every  other  religion.  We  know  quite  enough  of 
all  other  pretended  remedies  for  man's  miseries,  to  make 
us  sure  that  their  professions  are  fallacious.  The  little  ex- 
perience we  have  of  Christianity,  makes  us  daily  more  and 
more  sure  that  it  is  true;  that  all  its  promises  are  yea  and 
amen;  that  not  a  thing  hath  failed  of  what  was  proffered. 
Every  fellow  believer  whom  we  meet  affords  us  a  new  evi- 
dence of  its  divine  power.  Every  trial  we  pass  throu"h, 
every  storm  we  encounter,  every  day  we  live,  increases  our 
conviction;  every  sermon  we  deliver  or  hear,  augments  our 
admiration  of  Christianity;  our  whole  history,  since  we  have 
known  the  gospel,  has  been  a  putting  its  claims  to  a  practi- 
cal test. 

If  questioned  concerning  its  truth  now,  or  in  after  life, 
or  in  tiie  solemn  hour  of  death,  let  our  humble,  yet  thankful 
declaration  concerning   it  invariably  be,  whereof  we  all 

ARE    WITNESSES.'' 

(I.)  Ads  ii.  32. 

27 


LECTURE   XXI. 


THE  VANITY  AND  FUTILITY  OF  THE  OBJEC- 
TIONS BROUGHT  AGAINST  THE  CHRISTIAN 
RELIGION. 

2  Peter  iii.  3,  4— S,  9. 

Knowing  this  first,  that  there  shall  come  in  the  last  days  scof- 
fers, walking  after  their  own  lusts;  and  saying,  where  is  the 
promise  of  his  coming')  for  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all 
things  continue  as  they  were  from  the  beginning  of  the  cre- 
ation.— 

But,  beloved,  be  not  ignorant  of  this  one  thing,  that  one  day 
is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years 
as  one  day.  The  Lord  is  not  slack  concerning  his  promise, 
as  some  men  count  slackness;  but  is  long-suffering  to  us-ivard, 
not  tvilling  that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to 
repentance. 

It  is  impossible  to  pass  over  entirely,  in  a  work  like  the 
present,  the  objections  which  unbelievers  advance  against  the 
Christian  faith.  So  holy  and  humiliating  a  Revelation  must, 
of  course,  meet  with  much  resistance  in  the  pride  and  pas- 
sions of  erring  man;  and  this  resistance  will  be  in  proportion 
to  the  magnitude  of  the  discoveries,  the  incomprehensibility 
of  the  mysteries,  and  the  purity  of  the  precepts  which  the 
religion  contains. 


LECT.   XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  211 

We  might,  perliaps,  in  strict  reasoning,  dismiss  these  ob- 
jections with  a  very  few  remarks;  for  we  have,  from  the 
first,  required  in  the  student  of  the  evidences,  a  docile  and 
candid  mind; '^  and  the  faith  with  which  the  Revelation  is 
to  be  received,  as  we  shall  show  in  a  following  lecture,^  im- 
plies a  victory  over  interposing  doubts.  But  we  rather  pre- 
fer entering  upon  the  subject,  both  because  Satan,  the  great 
spiritual  adversary,  chiefly  works  by  the  injection  of  diffi- 
culties into  the  mind,  and  because,  in  an  age  of  literary  and 
scientific  inquiry  like  the  present,  the  young  are  peculiarly 
open  to  the  shafts  of  ridicule  and  scorn. 

We  enter,  therefore,  on  the  subject;  and  we  hope  to 
prove  that  the  slightest  review  of  the  main  objections  of  un- 
believers, and  of  their  lives  and  deaths,  as  compared  with 
those  of  sincere  Christians,  will  not  only  leave  the  eviden- 
ces in  favor  of  our  religion  untouched,  but  will  furnish  a 
strong  subsidiary  argument  in  support  of  them.  We  shall  be 
enabled,  we  trust,  not  only  to  defend  our  own  fortress,  but 
to  storm  that  of  the  enemy — to  take  possession  of  his  arms 
— turn  them  against  himself,  and  complete  his  overthrow  by 
the  means  of  his  own  weapons. 

In  the  present  Lecture  we  shall  consider  the  objections 
THEMSEi.vEs;  in  the  following,  the  lives  and  deaths  of 
those  who  advance  them. 

In  both,  we  shall  most  especially  need  the  aid  of  Almighty 
God,  to  remove  prejudices  from  our  understandings,  and  to 
sway  our  hearts;  for  nothing  can  convince  a  prejudiced 
mind;  the  medium  of  persuasion  is  wanting.  Unless,  there- 
fore, we  humbly  implore  the  influence  of  God's  grace  in  our 
study  of  this  subject,  it  will  be  impossible  for  us  to  attain 
any  solid  satisfaction. 

How,  then,  shall  we  best  treat  the  question  of  the  ob- 
jections themselves.''  We  cannot,  perhaps,  do  better  than 
by  acting  as  we  did  in  the  case  of  the  Tendency  of  Chris- 
lianity.*^  We  then  adverted  to  the  subjects  most  nearly  al- 
lied to  the  one  which  was  before  us;  and  considered  how  a 
tendency  was  demonstrated   in  the  instances  of  reason,  of 

(a)  Led.  ii.  (b)  Lect.  xxiii.  (c)  Led.  xviii. 


212  LECTURES    ON    THE  [l 


ECT.    XXX. 


moral  virtue,  and  of  natural  religion.  In  like  manner,  let 
us  now  begin,  by  considering  how  the  speculative  objec- 
tions, whicli  men  raise  against  one  or  more  of  these  princi- 
ples, are  treated. 

Tiic  beneficial  effects  of  moral  virtue  on  the  happiness  of 
man  are  admitted;  facts  prove  it;  concurring  testimony  of 
all  kinds  sustains  the  case;  experience  confirms  it  daily. 

The  natural  government  of  God  in  the  world  is  propound- 
ed upon  the  fooling  of  innumerable  traces  of  design  and 
contrivance,  of  goodness,  and  provision  for  man,  in  the 
works  of  creation  and  providence. 

The  obligations  of  religion,  as  unquestionably  due  from 
man  to  God,  his  Creator,  Benefactor,  Judge,  is  asserted;  con- 
science, the  final  causes  of  things,  a  retributive  providence, 
the  very  powers  and  faculties  of  man,  prove  the  truth. 

Now,  objections  are  perpetually  raised  against  these  ele- 
mentary principles.  And  how  are  they  met.''  The  objec- 
tions are  divided  into  two  classes.  If  they  are  advanced 
by  candid  inquirers,  with  an  apparent  desire  of  attaining  to 
truth;  if  they  seem  to  rest  on  fact  and  experience;  if  they 
are  directed  with  fairness  against  the  evidences  of  the  prin- 
ciple in  question;  if  they  are  consistent  with  each  other,  and 
urged  temperately  and  calmly;  if,  in  short,  they  appear  to 
carry  any  force  with  them,  when  fairly  stated — they  arc  then 
considered  with  care,  and  answered  cautiously  and  solidly 
by  the  detection  of  the  falacies  contained  in  them,  and  by 
the  adduction  of  more  decisive  and  overwhelming  facts  and 
reasonings. 

But  if  the  objections  are  urged  witli  no  apparent  desire 
of  attaining  truth;  if  they  arc  merely  speculative;  if  they  are 
directed  not  against  the  proofs,  but  against  the  liiattcr  of  the 
principles  which  the  proofs  go  to  establish;  if  they  are  con- 
tradictory with  themsqlves,  and  put  intemperately  and  un- 
fairly; and  if,  after  all,  they  are  found  to  be  merely  cavils, 
the  offspring  of  human  ignorance  or  i)ride,  they  are  alto- 
gether disregarded — theory  against  positive  facts  is  consid- 
ered to  be  of  no  avail — barren  conjectures  against  the  ex- 
perience oi' mankind,  arc  accounted  worse  than  folly. 


LECT.  XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  213 

Let  us,  then,  proceed  in  this  manner  with  the  objections 
against  Christianity.  Let  us  divide  them  into  two  classes. 
Let  the  doubts  advanced  modestly  and  fairly  by  the  sincere 
inquirer,  be  tenderly  treated  and  diligently  examined.  This 
is  what  we  have  been  aiming  at  throughout  this  work.  But 
let  the  cavils  and  objections  of  the  presumptuous  and  over- 
bearing be  met  with  a  decided  protest  against  their  whole 
spirit  and  aim.  This  is  what  we  shall  now  attempt;  and, 
in  doing  so,  shall  endeavor  to  render  some  further  aid  to  the 
young  and  inexperienced  Christian.  For  the  unreasona- 
ble objections  of  the  sceptic,  by  which  he  attempts  to  poi- 
son the  minds  of  the  uninformed,  will  be  found  to  resolve 
themselves  into  those  very  risings  of  pride  and  vain  curi- 
osity which  are  natural  to  the  fallen  heart  of  man,  which 
every  Christian  feels,  and  feels  continually;  but  which  he 
outvv'eighs  by  contrary  considerations,  and  subdaics  by  the 
influences  of  grace  and  the  persuasion  arising  from  a  solid 
experience  of  the  effects  of  Christianity  on  his  heart  and 
life. 

We  shall  show  then,  first,  that  the  objections  of  infidelity 
are,  for  the  most  part,  speculative  opinions,  directed  not 
against  the  evidences,  but  the  matter  of  Revelation,  and 
altogether  inadmissiblk;  next,  that  they  are  full  of  inconsis- 
tencies, and  put  intemperately  and  insidiously,  and  in  fact 
contradictory;  in  the  third  place,  that  they  are,  in  them- 
selves, the  obvious  dictates  of  ignorance  and  pride  of  heart, 
and  therefore  frivolous;  and  that  they  turn  out,  lastly,  to 
be  merely  trials  of  our  sincerity  and  submission  of  heart  to 
God,  and  conbmkm  rather  than  weaken  the  Christian  evi- 
dences. 

In  a  word,  the  reasonings  of  unbelievers  are  inadm[ssible, 
contradictory,  frivolous;  and  confirmatory  of  the  reli<T- 
ion  which  they  were  advanced  to  undermine. 

L     The   objections    against    the    Christian   religion    arc 

INADMISSIRLE. 

Common  sense  tells  us  tlmt  direct  and  positive  proofs, 
resting  upon  facts,  and  coniirmed  by  experience,  must  be 
rebutted  by  direct  and  positive  prools,  resting  upon  clearer 
facts,  coniirmed  by  a  wider  experience,  and  directed  against 


214  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.   XXI. 

the  evidences  supporting  the  case  which  is  in  question. 
Now,  we  shall  find,  that  the  objections  of  infidelity  are 
speculative  opinions  merely,  and  thus  wrong  in  kind;  and 
aimed  against  the  matter  of  Revelation,  and  not  the  eviden- 
ces, and  thus  wrong  in  object;  and  on  both  accounts  are 
utterly  inadmissible  in  all  fair  reasoning. 

They  are  wrong  in  kind.  What  can  mere  conjecture 
and  hypothesis  avail  against  a  mass  of  positive  facts,  sus- 
tained by  all  history,  profane  and  ecclesiastical,  and  consti- 
tuting a  body  of  proof  such  as  the  world  never  before  saw.'* 

Even  in  scientific  questions,  it  is  easy  to  frame  objections. 
A  disputant  may  invent  hypotheses;  and  some  of  them  suf- 
ficiently plausible,  against  any  section,  for  instance,  of  the 
Principia  of  Newton.  By  omitting  some  link  in  the  chain 
of  reasoning,  taking  up  insulated  parts  of  a  subject,  and 
showing  them  to  be  contradictory  to  some  principle,  he  may 
make  out  a  case,  which  to  an  unfurnished  mind  appears 
strong,  and  yet  to  a  sound  reasoner  has  no  force  whatever, 
though  it  may  be  difficult  for  him  at  first  to  detect  where 
the  fallacy  lies.  But  who  regards  such  sophisms  when  once 
exposed? 

Much  less  do  men  regard  such  hypotheses  in  directly 
practical  matters.  What  weight  do  they  attribute  to  spec- 
ulative difficulties  in  matters  of  agriculture,  commerce,  ju- 
risprudence, legislation?  What  would  the  sceptic  himself 
say,  if  his  method  as  to  Christianity  were  applied  to  his  own 
temporal  concerns?  If  he  were  sick,  and  a  well-attested 
medicine  were  presented  to  him,  what  regard  would  he  pay 
to  theoretic  objections?  If  the  deeds  of  an  inheritance  were 
made  over  to  him  with  all  the  formalities  of  law — what 
weight  would  he  give  to  adverse  speculations?  No.  In 
human  affairs  men  act,  not  only  against  theoretic  notions, 
but  expecting  them  and  despising  them  as  a  matter  of  course. 
They  know  well  enough,  that  facts,  not  cavils,  are  the  way 
to  truth;  they  know  that  a  slight  preponderance  amidst  con- 
flicting facts  and  testimonies,  perpetually  determines  human 
conduct — but  that  where  the  matters  of  fact  are  all  on  one 
side,  and  nothing  is  on  the  other  but  vain  reasonings,  men 


LECT.     XXI.j  EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITY.  215 

overrule  such  reasonings  at  once,  and  follow  the  sure  guide 
of  experience. 

And  shall  we  not  much  more  act  thus  in  a  concern  of 
such  infinite  moment  as  Christianity?  What!  have  we  gone 
through  our  external  and  internal  proofs,  in  order  to  give 
all  up  at  last  to  the  mere  abstract  opinions  of  prejudiced 
and  perverse  men?  What!  have  we  forgotten  the  temper 
of  mind  in  which  we  stated  that  the  whole  subject  must  be 
studied,  and  are  we  ready  to  surrender  all  our  hopes  to  a  spec- 
ulative and  ingenious  opponent?  What!  are  there  not  pos- 
itive and  solid  facts  enough  in  the  arguments,  both  histori- 
cal and  internal,  which  we  have  reviewed,  to  dissipate  the 
airy  phantoms  of  men's  imaginations?  Have  we  not  the 
series  of  testimonies  from  the  very  days  of  the  apostles;  have 
we  not  the  involuntary  attestations  of  Heathen  and  Jewish 
adversaries;  have  we  not  the  additional  confirmations  which 
the  discovery  of  manuscripts,  and  medals,  and  inscriptions 
has  been  pouring  in  upon  us  in  every  age?  Have  not  also 
the  actual  inward  effects,  the  glory  and  efficacy,  the  suita- 
bleness and  excellency  of  every  part  of  the  Christian  doctrine, 
solidity  enough  to  resist  the  attack  of  theoretic  difficulties, 
which,  perhaps,  after  all,  may  turn  out  to  be  no  difficulties? 

Yes:  the  sublime  doctrines  of  Christianity,  its  pure  and 
holy  precepts,  the  inimitable  character  of  its  founder,  its 
beneficial  tendency,  the  actual  experiment  and  proof  of  its 
efficacy  in  our  own  souls — these  positive  benefits,  when 
sustained  by  the  historical  proofs  of  authenticity,  credibil- 
ity, and  divine  authority,  form  a  solid  mass  of  facts,  against 
which  no  mere  speculations  can  for  a  moment  be  allowed 
to  weigh. 

The  attempt  is  monstrous.  An  unbeliever  tells  me  of 
petty  critical  difficulties  in  the  reading  of  manuscripts  or 
the  exactness  of  a  chronological  date;  he  talks  of  the  diffi- 
culties to  his  mind  of  the  Christian  mysteries;  he  complains 
of  the  conduct  and  spirit  of  many  professed  Christians. 

Now,  supposing  these  or  a  thousand  similar  statements 
were  ever  so  plausible,  yet  they  arc  chieffy  speculative,  the 
fabric  of  the  human  brain,  unsupported  by  facts — and  there- 
fore what  weight  have  they  against  the  mass  of  evidences 
of  every  kind  which  sustain  the  Christian  Revelation?     A 


216  LKCTURKS    ON    THF.  [lECT.     XXI. 

single  principle  in  tlio  lievelation  itself — as  for  instance,  the 
ignorance  of  man — may  overturn  them  all.  But  this  I  am 
not  now  concerned  with;  I  merely  assert  that  opinion,  and 
conjecture,  and  cavil,  are  worse  than  nothing,  com[)ared 
with  the  substantial  grounds  on  which  we  receive  the  di- 
vine record.     All  such  objections  are  wrong  in  kind. 

But  this  is  not  all.  They  are  wrong  ai.so  in  the  ob- 
ject against  which  they  are  directed;  for  when  we  come  to 
look  at  the  topics  which  are  urged  by  unbelievers,  we  find 
that  they  are  not  only  of  a  speculative  nature,  and  therefore 
of  ho  weight  against  positive  fact  and  experience;  but  they 
are  objections,  not  against  the  evidences,  but  against  the 
Revelation.  They  are  not  arguments  about  the  authen- 
ticity, the  divine  authority,  the  propagation  of  Christianity; 
but  against  the  matter  and  contents  of  Christianity  itself. 

Now  we  shut  out  at  once  all  such  reasonings.  They  are 
directed  to  a  wrong  purpose,  they  aim  at  an  inadmissible 
position.  We  bring  you  a  Revelation  from  the  great,  the 
eternal,  the  sovereign  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth.  We  de- 
tail the  proofs  of  its  divine  origin.  We  bid  you  examine 
them  with  the  utmost  care.  We  say  they  are  stronger  evi- 
dences by  far,  than  men  are  continually  acting  upon  in  all 
like  cases.  You  meet  the  statements  with  objections,  not 
to  the  credentials,  riot  to  the  testimonies,  but  to  some- 
thing which  appears  to  you  incongruous  in  the  contents  of 
the  Revelation.  Now  against  this  we  enter  our  decided 
protest.  Speculative  reasonings  are,  after  all,  of  little  value 
against  positive  facts;  but  speculative  reasonings,  not  di- 
rected against  the  facts  and  evidences  of  Revelation,  but 
against  Revelation  itself,  are  too  absurd,  and  too  evidently 
of  a  wrong  class,  to  be  attended  to  for  a  moment. 

I  bring  you  the  history  of  Livy  or  Tacitus.  I  prove  the 
work  to  be  the  genuine  production  of  the  author.  I  give 
the  contemporary  testimonies.  I  show  you  the  large  quo- 
tations from  it  in  every  subsequent  age.  You  pass  by  all 
my  facts — and  direct  your  speculative  reasonings  against 
something  you  dislike  in  the  matter  of  the  history! 

T  lay  before  you  an  act  of  the  British  legislature.  I  de- 
tail the  evidences  of  its  authenticity.     I  show  you  the  incon- 


LECT.   XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  217 

trovertible  records  of  the  Parliament  in  which  it  was  enacted. 
I  refer  you  to  the  printed  copy  in  the  archives  of  the  nation. 
You  neglect  all  these  positive  matters  of  fact— and  begin 
to  cavil  against  the  contents  of  the  statute! 

An  ambassador  from  the  Prince  and  Lord  of  heaven  and 
earth  arrives  amongst  men.  He  opens  his  embassy.  He 
exhibits  his  credentials.  He  has  the  sign  manual  of  his 
master.  You  turn  from  all  this  testimony — and  plunge  into 
metaphysical  arguments  on  what  you  term  the  unreasonable- 
ness of  the  message  which  he  delivers! 

All  this  is  so  manifestly  contrary  to  every  principle  of 
fairness  and  sincerity,  that  it  would  never  be  tolerated  on 
any  subject  whatever  in  human  affairs;  and  therefore,  least 
of  all  should  it  be  tolerated  in  a  matter  so  momentous  as 
religion. 

The  only  legitimate  ground  of  argument  against  Chris- 
tianity, is  against  its  evidences,  not  its  matter.  If  it  be  from 
God,  tlie  matter  is  divine:  this  is  a  question  then  beyond 
and  above  man.  At  all  events,  it  is  not  the  primary  ques- 
tion— the  sole  primary  inquiry  is,  are  the  evidences  such  as 
may  satisfy  a  candid  person  that  the  Revelation  is  of  divine 
authority.     Till   this  is  settled,  every  thing  else  is  trifling. 

If  men  have  any  thing  to  say  against  the  authenticity  of 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  let  them  advance  it.  If 
the  series  of  testimonies  of  all  kinds  to  the  simple  fact,  that 
the  Scriptures  were  published  at  the  time  when  they  claimed 
to  be,  and  were  received  by  the  contemporary  friends  and 
foes  of  the  religion  as  the  genuine  productions  of  the  pro- 
fessed authors — if  this  can  be  overthrown,  let  it  be  done. 
The  question  is  open  to  investigation. 

If  men  have  any  thing  to  advance  against  the  credibility 
of  the  gospel  history,  supported  as  its  facts  are  by  all  kinds 
of  testimony,  Heathen,  Jewish,  Christian;  and  uncontra- 
dicted by  a  single  credible  witness,  let  them  advance  it,  and 
we  will  hear  them. 

Or  if  they  have  any  thing  to  assert  against  the  divine 
authority  of  Christianity,  resting  on  the  miracles,  the  pro- 
phecies, the  supernatural  propagation  of  the  gospel,  and  its 
prominent  good  effects  before  the  face  of  mankind,  let  them 
28 


218  LKCTdRKS  ON  THK  [lECT.  XXI. 

come  forward  and  make  out  their  case,  and  we  are  ready  to 
weiffli  their  arfjuments. 

But  then  they  must  of  course  produce  a  contrary  series  of 
testimonies;  they  must  bring  forward  facts  against  our  facts; 
contemporary  authors  against  our  contemporary  authors; 
Heathen  and  Jewisli  historians  whose  evidence  goes  against 
ours  which  sustain  the  credibility.  They  must  oppose  to  our 
positive  proofs  of  authenticity,  positive  proofs  of  forgery. 
They  must  oppose  to  our  historical  evidences  of  creciibility, 
a  contrary  series  of  historical  documents.  They  must  com- 
bat our  matters  of  fact,  supporting  the  divine  authority  of 
Christianity,  by  contradicting  matters  of  fact — all  whicli  I 
need  not  say  no  one  has  even  attempted. 

But  for  men,  admitting,  as  those  with  whom  we  are  argu- 
ing profess  to  do,  the  being  and  attributes  of  God  and  tiie 
accountableness  of  man,  to  pass  over  all  these  irrefragable 
proofs,  and  to  turn  aside  and  cavil  at  the  contents  of  the 
religion,  is  so  open  an  act  of  disobedience  and  rebellion 
against  God,  that  nothing  but  the  deep  depravity  of  the 
human  heart  could  for  a  moment  listen  to  it.  And  yet  men 
listen  to  nothing  else.  Metaphysical  objections  against  the 
matter  of  Christianity  is  the  ground  almost  always  taken  by 
the  unbeliever. 

We  sweep  away,  then,  all  these  objections  at  once,  as 
out  of  plaice,  as  directed  to  an  illegitimate  object.  We 
stop  the  argument  at  the  threshold.  We  say,  if  the  Reve- 
lation be  indeed  from  God,  it  is  itself  the  authority  for  all 
it  contains:  your  objections,  therefore,  must  be  directed  to 
the  question  of  the  evidences  on  which  the  religion  rests — 
and  till  these  are  overthrown  by  historical  documents,  by  a 
series  of  positive  testimonies,-  by  a  fiir  and  manly  appeal  to 
the  contemporary  evidences  of  the  period  when  the  gospel 
was  established,  we  must  consider  all  your  reasonings  as 
mere  talk — they  are  wrong  in  ol>jcct;  and  are  on  this 
account,  as  well,  on  the  ground  of  tiicir  being  wrong  in 
kind,  utterly  inadmissible  in  the  present  stage  of  the  argu- 
ment: they  are  cavils,  not  objections;  subterfuges,  not  rea- 
sonings; the  artifices  of  a  dishonest  or  confused,  not  the 
arguments  of  a  sincere  and  well-balanced,  mind. 


LECT.    XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  219 

But  we  do  not  stop  here.  So  triumphant  are  the  eviden- 
ces of  the  Cliristian  Revelation,  that  we  go  a  step  further; 
and,  in  order  to  fortify  the  breasts  of  ingenuous  youth 
against  the  shafts  of  infidelity,  we  show  that, 

II.  The  objections  against  the  Christian  religion  are  con- 
tradictory, THE   ONE   to   the    OTHER. 

For,  on  looking  a  little  closer  into  the  statements  of 
unbelievers,  we  find  such  confusion  and  fallacy  in  their  rea- 
sonings— such  prevarication  and  dissimulation  of  the  real 
facts  of  the  case — such  concessions  made  to  the  Christian 
faith  atone  time,  and  such  unfair  and  intemperate  invectives 
urged  at  another — such  shifting  and  versatility  in  different 
ages,  and  by  ditlerent  classes  of  writers,  that  we  may  really 
leave  such  objections  to  refute  and  destroy  each  other,  and 
may  feel  yet  more  completely  assured  of  the  truth  of  a 
religion,  which  is  only  assailed  by  contradictory  speculative 
opinions. 

1.  For,  what  confusion  and  false  reasonings  do  we 
discover,  the  closer  we  examine  the  difficulties  advanced  by 
infidelity!  There  is  nothing  clear,  nothing  tangible,  nothing 
fairly  reasoned  out  upon  its  proper  grounds.  The  objec- 
tions of  unbelievers  prove  too  much;  they  sap  the  founda- 
tions of  the  natural  religion  which  they  profess  to  support,  as 
well  as  of  the  revealed  doctrine  which  they  avowedly  attack. 
They  deny  all  human  testimony.  They  subvert  the  first 
principles  of  morals.  Their  objections  are  rather  the  off- 
spring of  the  ignorant  and  falJen  mind  of  man,  as  we  have 
already  observed;  such  as  every  Christian  has  felt,  and  feels 
continually,  and  overcomes  by  faith — than  specific  doubt 
sustained  by  any  consistent  series  of  arguments. 

They  quite  forget  that  the  evidences  of  Christianity  are 
what  is  termed  a  cumulative  proof;  a  collective  argument, 
arising,  not  from  one  thing,  but  from  many  things  of  various 
kinds,  and  springing  from  independent  sources,  and  con- 
tributing in  different  degrees  to  tiie  result.  They  argue  as 
'  if  a  single  minute  objection  could  invalidate  the  whole 
combined  truth.  They  tiiink  if  they  can  make  good  any 
point  against  any  branch  of  the  Christian  evidence,  as  stated 
by  a  less  informed  or  feeble  advocate,  they  have  gained  their 


220  LECTURES  ON  THE        [lECT.  XXI. 

cause.  Thus  they  confuse  the  qiicstion.  All  their  argu- 
ments are  fallacies.  It  is  well  known  that  in  matters  of 
judicial  investigation,  there  is  ofKm  an  overwhelming  con- 
viction produced  from  the  combination  of  a  great  number 
of  witnesses,  no  single  one  of  whom  could  be  considered  as 
entitled  to  the  highest  degree  of  credit,  from  the  want  of 
general  intelligence,  or  acquaintance  with  the  particular 
circumstances  of  the  case,  or  even  from  want  of  character. 
If  such  an  accidental  combination  takes  place,  the  evidence 
becomes  perfectly  conclusive."*  What,  then,  avail  cavils 
against  some  smaller  points  in  the  cumulative  argumenti*  If 
unbelievers  could  weaken  the  force  of  one  half  of  our  proofs, 
the  remainder  would  be  more  than  sufficient;  perhaps  even 
one  branch  of  them — the  character  of  cur  Lord,  for  exam- 
ple— would  be  enough  to  convince  a  sincere  inquirer.  But 
no  single  division  of  our  evidences  has  yet  been  disproved; 
and  the  confused  objections  of  mere  speculative  unbelief 
against  some  insulated  facts,  are  like  the  foaming  waves 
dashing  against  the  deep-rooted  rock,  which  has  for  ages 
defied  their  Impotent  fury. 

The  evidences  of  our  religion  arc  like  what  we  mean  by 
strength  or  effect  in  architecture,  the  consequence  of  the 
whole  edifice  erected  in  such  a  manner,  and  seen  in  its  true 
light.  Supposing  one  argument  shf)uld  be  less  clearly  sup- 
ported, this  leaves  the  grand  mass  of  proof  in  its  general 
force  and  beauty.  If  a  single  stone  or  column  seems  to  an 
objector's  eye  inappropriate  for  upholding  or  adorning  the 
building,  we  are  not  to  think  that  the  entire  strength  or  effect 
depends  upon  that  separate  support,  when  it  reposes,  and 
with  far  greater  security,  upon  the  wide,  united  strength 
and  entire  range  and  system  of  its  fabric.^  What,  then, 
avail  the  incoherent,  contradictory  speculations  of  infidelity.'' 
Supposing  we  should  not  be  able  to  solve  explicitly  every 
objection,  we  may  yet  be  perfectly  satisfied  upon  the  whole 
and  may  leave  the  difficulty  for  abler  hands,  or  for  a  more 
advanced  period  of  our  own  studies. 

(d)  Verplank.  (e)  Butler,  Davison. 


LECT.    XXI.]  EVIDENCES'  OF    CHRISTIANITY.  221 

2.  But  further — the  rREVARicATioN  and  dissimulation 
OF  the  real  facts  of  the  case  are  so  apparent  in  the  ob- 
jections of  unbelievers,  as  to  deprive  their  reasonings  of  all 
force.  The  bold  denial  of  the  best  attested  matters  of  Ws- 
tory;  the  mis-statement  of  particular  circumstances;  the 
calumnies  heaped  on  the  memory  of  the  defenders  of  Chris- 
tianity; the  false  quotations  made  from  their  books;  altera- 
tions in  the  reading  of  important  passages;  the  perversion 
of  almost  every  incident  occurring  in  ecclesiastical  and 
profme  historians — these  are  the  arts  which  disgust  every 
candid  and  well-informed  mind  in  the  writings  of  sceptics. 
Was  ever  such  a  daring  compound  of  prevarication,  gross 
blunders,  impudent  denial  of  the  most  notorious  facts,  and 
unblushing  dissimulation  of  the  real  state  of  the  question,  as 
the  pages  of  the  Age  of  Reason  exhibited?  and  yet  this 
wretched  stuff  was  a  chief  instrument  in  the  spread  of  infi- 
delity in  this  country  at  the  period  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Take  the  works  of  Gibbon,  or  Hume,  or  Voltaire,  or  Ros- 
seau — there  is  scarcely  a  fact  which  affects  Christianity,  not 
perverted  or  concealed.  So  grossly  is  this  the  case,  that  the 
warmest  admirers  of  these  writers  do  not  deny  it;  whilst  the 
artful  insinuations,  the  secret  hints  and  reflections  against  the 
Christian  religion,  cast  out  incidentally,  as  it  were,  and  in 
books  and  places  where  they  might  h^ve  beerv  least  expected, 
prove  the  dishonesty  of  mind  of  those  who  have  recourse 
to  such  methods  of  controversy.  The  main  engine  of  infi- 
delity in  France,  was  an  insidious  corruption  of  the  streams 
of  literature.  Every  species  of  publication,  from  the  fu<M- 
tive  tale  to  the  ponderous  Encyclopedia,  was  infected  with 
the  moral  poison.  In  fact,  deceit  and  misrepresentation  are 
the  arms  of  this  wretched  cause.  I  know  of  no  one  work 
on  the  side  of  unbelief,  which  meets  manfully  the  case, 
which  allows  the  facts  with  candour,  and  then  proceeds  to 
a  consistent  and  honest  argument. 

3.  Consider,  again,  the  conckssions  made  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith  at  one  time,  and  the  unfair  and  intemperate 
INVECTIVES  urged  at  another. 

The  concessions  of  unbelievers  are  sufficient  to  establish 
the  Christian  religion.     The  facts  of  the   gospel  are  not 


222  LKCTUUES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXI. 

denied;  the  admissions  of  llie  three  first  centuries  make 
this  impossible.  The  simplicity  and  artlcssncss  of  the 
narratives,  that  is,  the  ckedihility,  is  admitted.  Miracles 
are  disputed  against  generally;  but  the  particular  facts 
of  the  gospel  not  being  controverted,  the  miracles  are 
virtually  conceded.  The  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies, 
though  contested  by  modern  infidels,  was  conceded  by  the 
earlier  ones,  some  of  whom  attempted  to  show  that  the 
predictions  were  written  after  the  events.  The  existence 
of  the  Jews  in  the  present  day  is  a  fact  which  carries  the 
truth  of  all  the  prophecies  along  with  it.  The  beauty  of 
the  MORALS,  and  the  benevolence  and  purity  of  the  charac- 
ter OF  Christ  are  granted.  The  tendencV  of  the  relig- 
ion to  promote  human  happiness  is  avowed  by  all  legisla- 
tors and  rulers.  The  supernatural  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity may  be  established  from  Gibbon's  own  objections. 
How  is  it,  then,  that  the  opponents  of  Revelation  are  thus 
inconsistent?  How  is  it  that  they  are  thus  compelled  to 
bear  testimony  in  favor  of  Christianity?  Does  it  not  prove 
that  they  are  not  satisfied  with  their  own  arguments,  and 
that  their  consciences  cannot  repose  on  the  reasonings  they 
have  framed.^  Christian  writers  never  act  thus.  We  never 
make  concessions  to  infidelity;  we  never  admit  at  one  time 
what  we  deny  at  another.  The  case  is  plain.  Those  con- 
cessions arise  from  occasional  convictions  of  truth  felt  and 
expressed,  though  contrary  to  the  general  stream  of  the 
unbeliever's  feelings.  It  is  thus  that  vicious  men  often  bear 
testimony  in  favor  of  virtue,  especially  at  the  near  approach 
of  death;  but  virtuous  men  never  bear  testimony  in  favor  of 
vice.^ 

And  then,  with  these  concessions  contrast  the  bitter  in- 
vectives which,  at  other  times,  infidelity  employs  against 
Christianity,  its  ministers,  its  doctrines,  its  precepts.  Ob- 
serve the  rancour,  the  peculiar  irritation,  the  deadly  malig- 
nity which  mark  their  writings.  They  seem  to  avenge  a 
personal  quarrel.  No  buffoonery  is  too  coarse,  no  ridicule 
too  keen,  no  sarcasm  is  too  bitter  for  such  a  purpose.     In- 

(0  Fuller. 


LECT.    XXI.]  EVIDKNCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  223 

Stead  of  reasoning,  confused  and  fallacious  as  it  may  be, 
they  give  you  clamor;  instead  of  facts,  calumny;  instead  of 
calm  argumentation,  personal  reproach;  instead  of  delibera- 
tion and  the  fear  of  deciding  amiss,  rashness  and  precipi- 
tation of  judgment.  Such  objections  carry  their  own  refu- 
tation with  them. 

4.  Add  to  this  the  shifting  and  versatii.ity  of  these  ob- 
jections in  difl'erent  ages,  and  by  different  classes  of  writers. 
Tiie  infidelity  of  each  age  varies  from  the  preceding.  The 
objections  -relied  on  now,  will  be  abandoned  a  few  years 
hence.  What  Herbert  admitted  in  the  seventeenth  century 
as  the  notices  of  our  reason  under  all  circumstances,  Paine, 
in  the-eighteenth,  spurns  and  rejects.  What  was  scorned 
by  ITobbes  and  Shaftesbury,  is  now  tacitly  allowed  to  be 
right  and  just.  Infidelity  is  compelled  to  wear  the  garb  of 
Christianity,  and  appear  under  the  form  of  Neologism  s^  and 
Socinianism.  Against  this  variable  and  inconsistent  opposi- 
tion, Christianity  presents  her  uniform  and  unchangeable 
testimony,  her  authenticity,  her  divine  authority,  her  inter- 
nal excellency.  She  is  defended  now,  as  she  was  in  the 
days  of  Justin  Martyr  and  Lactantius.  She  has  the  uniform- 
ity of  truth. 

Such,  then,  being  the  contradiction  of  the  objections 
raised  against  Christianity,  we  need  not  regard  them  with 
alarm.  It  would  be  madness  to  allow  such  cavils  to  disturb 
our  faith.  No,  my  young  friendsl  You  have  first  taken, 
as  you  ought,  a  direct  view  of  the  positive  evidences;  you 
have  found  every  part  abundantly  furnished  with  testi- 
monies; you  have  seen  the  inward  excellency  of  the  religion. 
To  you,  then,  the  speculative  error  falls  harmless  of  itself. 
You  have  laid  the  proper  foundation;  your  mind  reposes 
upon  it;  and  you  can  now  deal  with  the  objections,  which 
might  have  perplexed  you,  if  you  had  been  unfurnished  with 
this  knowledge.  Your  Christian  hope  is  an  anchor  of  the 
soul,  both  sure  and  stedfast;^  and  you  will  never  be  persuaded 

(o)  This  new  doclrine,  as  its  name  assumes,  scarcely  disguises  its  infidelity.  It 
attempts  lo  explain  away,  not  only  the  capital  doctrines  of  Christianity,  with  Socin- 
ianism, but  all  miraculous  power— every  thing,  fn  short,  peculiar  to  revelation. 

(h)  Heb.  vi.  I'J. 


224  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXI. 

to  desert  your  port  in  order  to  venture,  at  the  call  of  human 
rashness,  on  the  wild  sea  of  endless  reasonings.  No;  if 
sceptical  doubts  intrude  into  the  mind,  you  will  fall  back  on 
the  positive  facts  and  practical  benefits  of  Christianity; 
you  will  let  conscience  reply;  you  will  not  be  caught  in  the 
thin  web  of  a  treacherous  enemy;  but  being  furnished  with 
a  solid,  practical  persuasion  of  Christianity,  you  will  burst 
at  once  the  dangerous  delusions,  and  come  forth  to  liberty 
and  peace. 

If  we  had  nothing  else  to  state  in  answer  to  the  objec- 
tions of  infidelity,  this  would  be  more  than  enough.  They 
are  not  only  inadmissible  in  themselves,  but, when  they  arC 
looked  into,  they  are  found  to  be  contradictory  with  each 
other.  But  we  proceed  yet  further;  chiefly  for  the  sake 
of  the  young,  into  whose  minds  the  bold  assertions  and  cavils 
of  the  sceptic  may  at  times  be  injected;  and  we  show, 

III.  That  these  olojections  are  frivolous  in  themselves, 

AND  MANIFESTLY  SPRING  FROM  THE  PRIDE  AND  IGNORANCE 
OF    THE    HITMAN    MIN^D. 

I  can  scarcely  bring  myself  to  classify  these  miserable 
reasonings,  even  with  the  purpose  of  showing  how  vain  and 
weak  they  are  as  advan'ced  against  Christianity. 

Let  us  first,  however,  look  at  those  which  are  trifling 
in  themselves;  -then  at  such  as  spring  especially  from  the 
PRIDE  of  the  human  heart;  and  lastly,  at  those  which  arise 
chiefly  from  ignorance  of  what  Christianity  is,  and  of  the 
facts  connected  with  it. 

1.  For  what  can  be  more  trifling  in  themselves  than 
petty  critical  or  scientific  Objections  on  the  dimensions  of  the 
ark;  on  slight  variations  in  genealogies;  on  points  of  chro- 
nological minuteness;  on  circumstances  in  the  lives  of  the 
patriarchs;  on  the  quotations  in  the  New  Testament  from 
the  Old;  on  the  diversities  in  the  narrative  of  the  four  gos- 
pels; or  the  various  readings  in  the  manuscripts;  on  the 
supposed  contradictions  between  geological  theories  and 
the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation;  on  the  judgments 
inflicted  by  the  Almighty  on  guilty  nations,  by  means  of 
the  Jewish  people?  A  thousand  things  such  as  these — 
what  are  they  but  trifling,  petty,  microscopic  atoms  float- 


LECT.  XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITY.  225 

ing  in  the  sun-beams,  compared  with  the  gigantic  mass  of 
evidences,  external  and  internal,  hy  which  Christianity  i* 
sustained?  In  books  of  such  antiquity  and  diversity;  in  the 
accounts  of  usages  and  manners  which  have  passed  away 
for  ages;  in  documents,  designed  for  the  whole  world,  and 
for  men  of  every  class  and  in  every  period  of  time,  these 
difliculties  might  be  expected  to  occur;  they  are  the  mere 
dust  in  the  balance;  they  arc  matters  which  sound  criticism 
explains;  which  further  knowledge  of  ancient  manners  elu- 
cidates; which  every  new  commentator  lessens  by  more 
enlarged  means  of  information;  and  which  have  been  every 
one  shown  to  admit  of  a  satisfactory  answer.  To  dwell  on 
such  points,  is  as  frivolous  and  absurd,  as  for  a  prisoner,  con- 
demned to  death,  to  criticize  minutely  the  language  of  the 
pardon  granted  him  by  his  sovereign,  at  the  moment  when 
gratitude  and  joy  should  overwhelm  every  other  feeling. 

2.  But,  to  pass  from  this  first  class,  what  shall  we  say  to 
the  great  speculative  objections  which  involve,  indeed,  the 
deepest  and  most  momentous  questions,  but  which,  as  they 
affect  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  are  obviously  the  dic- 
tates of  HUMAN  PRIDE  AND  PRESUMPTION.^  For  what  are  diffi- 
culties raised  about  the  guilt  and  corruption  of  man,  and  the 
incomprehensibility  of  the  Christian  mysteries,  but  a  con- 
fession of  a  proud  curiosity,  whith  would  pry  into  secrets 
which  God  has  not  revealed,  and  which  Christianity  avows 
to  be  beyond  her  design  to  unfold.^ 

Men  urge  against  Christianity,  the  existence  of  moral 
evil,  and  the  statements  of  Scripture  about  the  depravity 
and  corruption  of  man.  We  acknowledge  the  impenetrable 
difficulties  to  our  finite  understandings.  But  does  not 
Christianity  profess  that  her  scheme  is  only  partially  reveal- 
ed; that  tlie  practical  bearings  of  it  are,  indeed,  clearly 
made  out  to  guide  man  in  his  duties;  but  that  the  whole 
reasons  of  the  Almighty  in  his  permission  of  evil,  in  his  deal- 
ings with  his  rational  and  accouiital)Ie  creatures,  are  not 
revealed,  much  less  sul)mittcd  to  human  judgment  and  opin- 
ion? What,  then — must  we  again  remind  young  persons  of 
the  limited  faculties  of  man,  and  his  inability  to  compre- 
hend the  designs  of  the  infinite  God?  What,  then — is  it  not 
29 


226  LECTUKES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXI. 

enough  that  the  Revelation  declares  that  the  judge  of  all 
the  earth  tvill  do  right; ''  that  at  the  last  great  assize  he  will 
reconcile  all  the  apparent  ine(|ualities  in  his  providential 
dealincs,  and  display  his  holy  character  in  all  its  perfection? 
WhatI  are  there  not  sufficient  indications  of  the  divine 
goodness  and  mercy  in  the  scheme  of  Revelation,  though 
some  parts  of  man's  condition,  and  some  of  the  causes  of 
things,  are  not  discovered  to  us?  What!  can  a  child, 
broufrht  up  by  a  kind  and  considerate  parent,  discern  proofs 
enough  of  his  love  and  wisdom,  though  some  of  his  re- 
straints, and  many  of  his  commands,  appear  harsh  to  his 
selfishness  and  passions;  and  shall  not  man,  the  child  of  a 
heavenly  parent,  acknowledge  the  numberless  instances  of 
God's  goodness  and  mercy,  though  he  cannot  understand 
why  he  was  made  with  such  and  such  powers,  and  placed 
in  such  and  such  relations?  Nay,  is  not  the  fallacy  of  the 
sceptic's  argument,  with  respect  to  the  character  of  the 
Almighty,  infinitely  more  glaring,  than  the  fallacy  of  the 
child's  argument  would  be,  if  he  concluded  against  the 
kindness  and  wisdom  of  his  earthly  father! 

Or  conceive  the  same  thing  in  another  light.  Here  is  a  com- 
plicated machine  invented  by  one  of  unquestionably  superior 
ability  and  integrity — the  end  to  be  ultimately  accomplished 
by  it,  is  so  simple  as  to  be  understood  by  those  of  the  low- 
est capacity.  We  cannot,  however,  follow  out  in  every  in- 
stance, the  nature  of  the  machinery,  merely  through  our 
want  of  understanding;  but  we  are  still  assured  by  the 
Maker,  that  all  is  frained  in  the  best  manner,  but  that  the  ef- 
fect is  yet  very  imperfectly  produced.  Surely  this  assurance, 
backed  with  demonstrative  evidence  of  success  in  a  variety 
of  instances  that  fell  within  the  level  of  our  capacity,  would 
remove  all  shadow  of  doubt  from  every  reasonable  mind. 
Now  that  God  is  wise  and  good,  and  that  the  proceedings 
of  his  government  must  be  wise  and  good,  all  acknowledge 
who  admit  the  perfections  of  the  one  Almighty  God.  Rev- 
elation also  teaches  us  the  end  which  he  will  ultimately 
brin^  out.     We  find  ourselves   lost,  however,  in  the  myste- 

(h)  Gcii.  xviii.  'Jo. 


LECT.    XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OP     CHRISTIANITY,  227 

rious  conduct  of  the  means  he  uses.  But  we  see  evidently 
that  we  undcrsland  not  the  sum  of  things;  and  experience 
tells  us  that  nothing  is  more  fallible  than  our  judgment  in 
these  matters.  While,  then,  we  have  undoubted  proofs 
that  the  Revelation  is  from  God — that  the  machinery  is  of 
divine  formation — we  cannot  rationally  distrust  the  perfec- 
tion of  his  moral  government,  however  incomprehensible  to 
us.' 

But  why  do  I  thus  expose  the  futility  of  this  objection.'' 
For  wherefore  is  it  urged  at  all  against  Christianity?  Chris- 
tianity did  not  produce  the  actual  condition  of  man.  Chris- 
tianity did  not  occasion  the  fall  of  our  nature.  Christianity 
did  not  introduce  moral  evil.  We  have  already  made  this 
remark.  J  We  make  it  again.  The  misery  and  guilt  of 
man  is  a  state  of  things  which  actually  exists,  whether  Chris- 
tianity be  true  or  not.  Man  is  actually  in  this  condition 
under  the  natural  government  of  God.  Natural  religion  has 
to  deal  with  the  fact,  as  much  as  Christianity.  Go  then, 
presumptuous  inquirer,  and  ask  of  natural  religion  the  solu- 
tion of  your  difficulties.  Go  and  demand  of  the  Deist  what 
he  has  to  say  of  the  entrance  of  moral  evil  and  the  amount 
of  disorder  and  unhappiness  now  in  the  world.  When  he 
has  answered  your  demand,  then  come  back  to  Christianity, 
and  she  will  show  you  the  remedy  she  has  provided  for  it. 

The  truth  is,  such  inquiries  are  beyond  and  above  our 
faculties.  If  men  allow  the  being  and  perfections  of  God, 
under  whose  government  this  evil  exists,  they  cannot  with 
any  show  of  reason  transfer  the  objection  from  natural  to 
revealed  religion,  and  make  it  a  pretext  for  rejecting  all  the 
positive  evidences  of  Revelation;  especially  as  this  proposes 
an  alleviation,  a  remedy,  a  salvation  to  man,  a  clue  to  lead 
him  out  of  the  labyrinth  where  he  must  otherwise  wander 
without  rescue  and  without  hope.  "If  in  a  chain  of  mercy 
by  which  the  Almighty  draws  a  race  of  sinners  to  himself, 
the  first  links  be  far  above  out  of  our  sight,  and  others  sur- 
rounded with  a  glory  too  bright  for  mortal  gaze;  shall  we 
on  that  account  refuse  to  follow  its  attraction,  and  choose 

(i)  See  MiliieratrainslCiilihon,]).  21G.  (j)  Led.  xv. 


228  LECTURF.S  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXI. 

our  own  wnys  and  methods  of  ascending  into   the   presence 
of  the  Most  Highr'"' 

I  say  little  on  the  other  branch  of  this  class  of  objections, 
the  incomprehensibility  of  the  Christian  mysteries;  for  what 
is  the  source  of  all  this  but  the  plainest  pride  and  presump- 
tion— a  pride  and  presumption  yet  more  inexcusable  than 
that  which  gave  rise  to  the  former  topic?  There  was  in 
that  difficulty,  a  plausible  force  from  the  acknowledged  facts 
of  man's  misery;  but  to  comf)lain  of  incomprehensibility 
in  the  mode  of  the  divine  subsistences  in  the  Holy  Trinity, 
in  the  incarnation,  the  atonement,  the  person  and  opera- 
tions of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  divine  will  and  purposes  in 
election,  the  union  of  man's  free  agency  with  God's  gracious 
influences  upon  the  heart,  is  at  once  to  make  ourselves 
wiser  than  the  Almighty.  Undoul)tedly,  many  parts  of  these 
doctrines  are  involved  to  us  in  mystery — but  they  are  pro- 
posed to  us  as  such;  the  great  mystery  of  godliness  is  only 

(k)  Bishop  Bloomfield's  Sermons,  p.  45. 

I  add  an  important  remark  from  another  author.  "Thai  there  are  difficulties  in 
the  Christian  system,  ever^  reflecting-  man  will  be  ready  to  acknowledge:  but  then 
they  are  either  difficulties  which  admit  of  an  easy  solution,  or  such  as  arise  out  of 
the  limited  range  of  our  capacities  in  this  infancy  of  our  being;  and  if  we  will  but 
condescend  to  believe  that  the  works  of  God  are  as  great  and  marvellous,  and  liis 
ways  as  just  and  true,  in  those  things  which  we  do  not  yet  comprehend,  as  we  clearly 
see  to  be  the  case  in  those  that  we  do,  then  ever}-  rebellious  aspiring  of  a  sceptical 
nature  will  be  quelled,  and  we  shall  be  contented  to  wait  in  humility  and  faith  for 
those  clearer  discoveries,  which  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude  will  form  one  great 
source  of  increased  enjoyment  to  us  in  a  more  e.\a^ted  state  of  being. 

"In  the  mean  time,  it  is  of  the  first  importance,  when  dwelling  upon  the  difficulties 
which  may  be  started  by  sceptics  to  the  Christian  Revelation,  to  recollect  that  most 
of  these  difficulties  apply  with  equal  force  to  ever^-  system  of  Deism,  that  has  been 
or  can  be  framed.  The  great  diflerence  between  the  two  cases  is  this,  that  although 
each  system  has  its  difficulties  inevitable  to  creatures  placed  in  circumstances  of 
comparative  ignorance,  there  is  on  the  side  of  Christianity  a  mass  of  evidence,  clear, 
convincing,  and  incontrovertible,  to  prove  that  it  is  a  system  framed  by  Infmile  Be- 
nevolence, for  the  highest  purposes  of  human  happiness:  there  is  practical  proof,  that, 
by  its  influence  on  the  human  mind,  millions  have  been  reclaimed  from  immorality; 
and  there  is  an  absohitc  certainty,  from  a  surve}'  of  its  principles,  that  if  we  could 
conceive  them  to  have  their  full  influence  upon  the  counsels  of  nations,  and  upon  the 
conduct  of  individuals,  the  reign  of  sin,  the  source  of  all  misery,  would  be  extin- 
guished, and  earth  would  almost  wear  the  aspect  of  heaven.  In  the  other  case 
Deism  has  to  encounter  most  of  the  difficulties,  and  is  at  the  same  time  utterly  de- 
void of  any  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity.  It  is  all  hopeless  uncertainty,  and 
dreary,  shivering  speculation."  Hartford's  account  of  T.  Paine — to  which  admira- 
ble and  authentic  narrative,  drawn  from  original  documents  and  the  testimonies  of 
eye-witnesses,  this  and  the  succeeding  Lecture  arc  much  indebted. 


LECT.  XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  229 

unfolded  as  to  certain  practical  uses.  Probably  our  facul- 
ties are  incapable  of  comprehendin<T  more  tlian  has  been 
revealed.  An  insect  in  the  drawer  of  a  cabinet,  is  more  ca- 
pable of  weighing  the  conduct  and  estimating  all  the  coun- 
sels of  [)rinces,  than  we  are  ca[)able  of  weighing  the  conduct 
and  estimating  the  counsels  of  the  infinite  God.*  Christian- 
ity hides  not  her  mysteries:  she  avows  them.  She  says,  she 
has  truth,  but  truth  veiled;  that  the  secret  things  of  her  doc- 
trine, like  those  of  nature,  will  not  be  entirely  manifested 
till  we  come  to  the  region  of  full  and  perfect  light.  She 
says,  God  is  good,  but  incomprehensibly  good;  wise,  but 
incomprehensibly  wise;  intelligent,  but  of  an  incomprehen- 
sible understanding.  You  tell  a  peasant  that  the  sun,  which 
lie  sees  rise,  draw  towards  the  meridian,  decline  towards 
the  west,  and  at  length  disappear,  is  yet  immovable  in  the 
centre  of  the  universe;  you  say  to  him  that  this  earth  on 
which  he  stands  so  firmly,  turns  about  its  axis  with  a  fright- 
ful rapidity.  He  cannot  comprehend  you;  and  you  attribute 
his  incredulity  to  its  true  cause,  his  ignorance.'"  It  is  so 
with  the  Christian  mysteries.  In  God  they  are  all  light,  nei- 
ther is  there  any  darkness  at  all;"^  though,  as  it  respects  us, 
they  are  obscure  and  incomprehensible.  But  as  the  peas- 
ant, if  possessed  of  the  least  modesty  and  humility,  would 
believe  the  facts  of  the  natural  world  on  the  testimony  of  the 
united  learning  and  moral  integrity  of  men  of  all  nations, 
best  capable  of  examining  them;  so  much  more  will  tl:e 
Christian,  receiving  a  divine  Revelation  on  its  authentic 
proofs,  admit  the  Revelation  itself  as  the  authority  for  the 
mysteries  which  it  contains.  Such  objections,  then,  are,  as 
it  respects  Christianity,  utterly  frivolous. 

3.  But  we  pass  to  the  third  class  of  objections  which 
spring  from  mkijk  ignohance  of  what  Christianity  is, 
what  it  proposes  to  effect,  the  manner  of  its  operations,  its 
proper  province,  and  the  history  of  its  actual  influence  in 
all  ages.  And,  here,  why  should  I  reply  to  the  oft-refuted 
objections  to  the  dangerous  tendency  of  the  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  in  the  merits  of  the  Son  of  God,  when 

(1)  Locke.  (m)  Frassynous.  (n)  1  John  i. 


230  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXI. 

the  whole  Bible,  and  the  testimony  of  all  competent  wit- 
nesses, show  it  to  be  the  immediate  source  of  gratitude, 
obedience,  holiness,  joy?  Why  should  I  repel  the  charge 
of  gloomy  and  monastic  and  mean  virtues  being  attached  to 
Christianity,  when  the  slightest  acquaintance  with  the  mor- 
als of  the  gospel  will  show  its  lovely  and  benignant  charac- 
ter, its  freedom  from  every  appearance  of  austerity,  its  ami- 
able and  sympathising  and  consoling  spirit?  Or,  again, 
why  should  I  refute  the  objection  framed  on  the  ground  of 
the  persecutions  and  wars  of  which  Christianity  has  been 
said  to  be  the  cause!  For  wliere  is  the  spirit  of  persecution  to 
be  found  in  the  New  Testament?  Is  it  in  the  sermon  on 
the  mount?  Is  it  in  the  delineation  of  charity  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  or  in  the  enumeration  of  the 
lovely  virtues  in  the  12th  of  that  to  the  Romans?  Who,  I 
ask,  have  in  all  ages  been  the  authors  of  wars  and  persecu- 
tions. Christians  or  their  oppressors?  Did  Christianity  per- 
secute Herod,  or  Herod  Christianity?  Did  the  Christians  of 
the  first  three  centuries,  raise  wars  and  persecutions  against 
the  Roman  emperors,  or  the  Roman  en)perors  against  the 
Christians?  And  if  corru|)t  bodies  of  men  have  in  later 
ages  made  a  pretext  of  Cl)rislianity  for  kindling  wars  or  ex- 
citing persecutions,  what  was  the  cause?  Was  it  Chris- 
tianity, or  the  want  of  Christianity?  Was  it  the  pure  and 
humble  doctrine  of  the  gospel  preached  by  the  Reformers, 
which  excited  the  wars  t)f  that  period;  or  the  fierce  and  im- 
placable s[)irit  of  men  void  of  Christianity  and  filled  with 
secular  ambition  and  pride?  Where  is  the  precept  of  Chris- 
tianity which  is  not  peaceful  and  benignant?  Where  the 
spot  in  which  pure  Christianity  has  been  planted,  without 
bringing  its  own  spirit  of  forgiveness  with  it  and  subduing 
the  angry  passions  of  man?  , 

And  what  are  the  variety  of  opinions  and  the  divisions 
among  Christians — another  topic  of  invective  with  unbe- 
lievers— but  generally  immaterial  dilVercnces  of  judgment, 
upon  subordinate  points,  springing  from  the  weakness  of 
human  reason?  AH  true  Christians  are  united  u[)on  every 
thing  vital — every  thing  that  relates  to  the  main  doctrines, 
the  chief  duties  and  the  lovely  temper  of  the  gospel — all 


LECT.  XXI.]  EV^IDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 


231 


are  united  in  hunniliation  before  God  for  sin,  in  reliance  on 
the  grace  and  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  necessity  of 
holiness  of  heart  and  life.  Their  varieties  of  opinion  on 
the  details  and  expositions  of  truth,  and  on  matters  of  ex- 
ternal discipline,  are  entirely  lost  in  the  immense  importance 
of  the  points  on  which  they  speak  with  one  heart  and  one 
mouth,  to  the  praise  of  that  Saviour  whom  the  gospel  has 
revealed. 

I  will  not  dwell  on  the  objection  raised  upon  the  little 
influence  which  Christianity  has  upon  its  followers,  because 
this  again  is  an  ebullition  of  pure  ignorance — it  rests  on  the 
gross  mistake  of  confounding  nominal  with  real  Christians 
— it  proceeds  on  the  idea  that  men  are  Christians,  though 
they  are  merely  worldly,  proud  professors  of  that  holy  doc- 
trine, with  the  name  of  a  religion  which  they  understand 
not,  regard  not,  follow  not  in  any  one  branch  of  its  princi- 
ples or  commands.  To  quote  men  who  have  never  taken 
the  prescribed  medicine,  as  proofs  of  the  want  of  virtue  in 
the  medicine  itself,  is  contrary  to  reason  and  common  sense. 

But,  then,  the  Christian  religion  wants  universality  and 
greater  clearness  in  its  evidences — say  the  objectors,  in  the 
last  place.  Here,  also,  men's  ignorance  is  the  true  source 
of  the  mistake!  Are  they  any  judges  of  the  clearness  and 
force  of  the  evidences,  which  they  have  never  examined? — 
for  if  they  had  examined  them,  they  could  not  overlook 
their  immense  force,  and  turn  aside  to  speculate  on  the 
matters  which  we  have  been  refuting.  Have  they  ever 
spent  one  hour  in  weighing,  with  serious  and  candid  minds, 
the  mass  of  evidences  which  Christianity  produces?  Have 
they  not,  on  the  contrary,  neglected,  passed  over,  despised 
our  body  of  j)roofs,  and  flown  off" to  vain  reasonings,  which 
can  only  bewilder  the  understanding  and  harden  the  heart.? 
And  what  ignorance  is  it  of  the  whole  design  of  Christian- 
ity, to  suppose  that  man  may  proscribe  to  the  Almighty  the 
degree  of  clearness  which  should  attend  the  testimonies  of 
Revelation!  It  is  enough  if  the  proofs  arc  sufficient  to 
satisfy  a  humble,  sincere  inquirer.  To  satisfy  others  is  im- 
possible. To  make  the  evidences  irresistible,  would  go  to 
undermine  all  the  moral  agency  of  man,  would  be  contrary 


232  LECTUKES  ON  THE  [lECT.   XXI. 

to  his  estate  of  probation,  would  act  upon  liim  mechanically 
and  furcibly,  and  destroy  his  moral  and  accountable  nature. 
Yet  the  evidences,  after  all,  are,  I  was  going  to  say,  irre- 
sistible— that  is,  they  are  so  numerous,  so  powerful,  so  vari- 
ous, so  attractive,  they  arise  from  so  many  quarters,  they 
address  in  so  many  parts  man's  reason  and  afl'ections,  that 
to  a  fair  and  impartial  student  they  are  demonstrative,  over- 
whelming, irresistible. 

And  as  to  the  want  of  universality  in  the  religion,  what 
is  the  cause.''  Is  it  not  the  torpor  and  ingratitude  of  those 
who  possess,  but  do  not  spread,  its  blessings;  who  neglect 
the  last  and  most  solemn  command  of  its  divine  Founder, 
who  act  against  its  genuine  spirit  of  diffusion,  who  are  tame, 
feeble,  and  declining  in  their  Christianity,  instead  of  being 
bold,  ardent,  and  persevering.''  What  was  the  spirit  of  the 
church  in  its  .early  age,  but  dissemination.''  What  was  the 
last  thing  that  withered  before  the  blighting  selfishness  of 
the  dark  ages,  but  dissemination.''  What  has  distinguished 
the  revival  of  pure  Christianity,  but  the  zeal  of  missions.'' 

And  how,  then,  can  the  want  of  universality  be  charged 
as  an  objection  upon  our  religion.''  It  is  designed  to  be  uni- 
versal, it  is  calculated  to  be  so  in  all  its  parts,  its  followers 
are  bound  by  every  motive  to  render  it  so.  -  > 

What  reasons,  unknown  to  man,  there  may  be  for  Al- 
mighty God's  permitting  the  present  slow  and  limited  range 
of  this  mighty  blessing,  it  is  not  for  us  to  say.  Man's  ignor- 
ance is  here  the  best  check  on  the  rash  impetuosity  of  our 
minds.  We  see  in  the  natural  world,  that  men's  faculties, 
powers,  advantages,  are  most  unequally  distributed.  We 
see  that  benefits,  and  discoveries,  and  inventions  of  the 
most  beneficial  kind  arc  limited  in  their  circuit.  The  most 
valuable  discoveries  in  medicine,  for  instance,  have  been 
made  only  of  late  years,  and  are  still  confined  to  a  few 
nations.  To  find,  therefore,  the  benefits  of  the  Christian 
dispensation  extended  only  to  certain  nations,  and  not  reach- 
ing to  others,  is  no  more  valid  as  an  objection  to  Christian- 
ity, that  a  similar  order  of  things  is  to  the  natural  govern- 
ment of  God.° 

(o)  Butler. 


LECT.    XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 


233 


"The  work  of  God  is  begun,"  says  Bishop  Horsley,  "is 
going  on,  and  will  unquesiionably  be  carried  to  its  perfec- 
tion. The  spirit  of  Cliristianity  is  gaining  more  and  more 
of  an  ascendancy,  and  God's  good  work  is- tending  to  its  con- 
summation by  that  progress,  l)y  which,  from  the  very  nature 
of  the  means  employed,  the  business  must  be  expected  to  pro- 
ceed. The  means  are  not  such  as  he  might  be  expected  to 
put  in  use,  if  hi§  omnipotence  alone  were  regarded,  but  they 
are  such  as  are  cons.istent  with  the  free  agency  of  man;  such  as 
are  adapted  to  the  nature  of  man  as  a  rational  and  moral  agent, 
and  adapted  to  the  justice  and  wisdom  and  mercy  of  God 
in  his  dealings  with  such  a  creature.  God's  power  is  unques- 
tionably competent  to  the  instantaneous  abolition  of  all 
moral  evil,  by  the  annihilation,  at  a  single  stroke,  of  the 
whole  troop  of  rebellious  angels  and  the  wiiole  race  of  sin- 
ful men,  and  the  production  of  new  creatures  in  their  room, 
God's  power  is  competent  to  the  speedy  abolition  of  moral 
evil,  by  the  sudden  execution  of  severe  judgments  on  wicked 
nations,  or  sinful  individuals.  But  God  willeth  not  the  death 
of  a  sinner;  he  seeks  our  obedience  to  his  will  founded  less 
on  fear  than  love.  He  abstains,  iherefore,  from  these  sum- 
mary, abrupt,  coercive  measures,  and  he  employs  no  other 
means  than  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  that  is,  no  other 
means  than  those  of  persuasion  and  argument,  invitation 
and  threatening.  It  is  very  obvious  that  ages  must  elapse 
before  these  means  can  produce  their  full  effect.  The  pro- 
gress of  the  work  will  not  only  be  gradual,  but  liable  to 
temporary  interruptions;  so  that  at  times  it  may  seem,  not 
only  to  stand  still,  but  even  to  go  backward,  as  often  as 
particular  circumstances  in  the  affairs  of  the  world  draw 
away  the  attention  of  men  from  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel, 
or  raise  up  extraordinary  opposition  of  their  passions  to  its 
precepts.  Instead  of  taking  offence  at  the  slow  progress, 
we  should  rely  on  the  promise  of  the  prophetic  word,  and 
set  ourselves  to  consider  what  may  be  done  on  our  part,  and 
what  God  may  expect  we  should  do,  for  the  furtherance  of 
his  work  and  the  removal  of  hindrances."  p 

(p)  Horsley,  Sermon  xl— a  reference  to  one  or  two  sentences  of  it  is  made,  p.  201. 

30 


234  LKCTURES  ON  THE  [leCT.  XXI. 

Thus  vain  and  frivolous,  arc  the  objections  of  infidelity 
when  we  come  to  consider  them,  which  we  liave  the  rather 
done,  because  they  are  of  the  same  nature  with  the  corrupt 
suggestions  of  the  fallen  heart  of  man,  a  resistance  to  which 
is  a  main  characteristic  of  the  wise  and  sincere  Christian, 
whilst  he  that  yields  to  them  becomes  the  unbeliever.  But 
that  Christianity  should  be  open  to  such  difficulties,  is  in- 
deed what  might  be  expected  when  God,  the  infinite  Crea- 
tor, makes  known  a  part  of  his  ways  to  man,  a  feeble,  cor- 
rupt, and  perverse  creature.     We  observe,  therefore — 

IV.  That  THESE  OBJECTIONS  ARE,  UPON  THE  WHOLE, 
ONLY    TRIALS    OF     OUR    SINCERITY    AND     SUBMISSION    OF      HEART 

TO  God,  and  go  to  confirm  rather  than  weaken  the 
Christian   evidences. 

For  it  is  a  part  of  our  probation  in  this  world,  that  we 
should  be  subjected  to  the  consideration  of  difficulties, 
which  we  may  make  the  occasion  of  objection  and  rebel- 
lion of  heart,  if  we  please,  but  which  are  designed  only  to 
put  to  the  proof  our  sincerity  and  submission  of  mind  to 
our  circumstances  and  duties.  To  understand  fully  all  the 
parts  of  the  Christian  system,  might  reciuirc,  for  any  thing 
we  can  tell,  divine  capacities.  Mystery  is  a  necessary  at- 
tendant upon  the  being  and  perfections  of  God  in  the  view 
of  a  finite  creature  like  man.  Similar  difficulties  and  ob- 
jections to  those  which  men  think  they  see  in  Revelation, 
they  think  they  see  in  God's  moral  government  of  the  world. 
Now  if  the  very  same  sort  of  obscurities,  grounds  of  irrita- 
tion, partial  light,  limited  range  of  inHuence,  contradiction 
to  preconceived  expectations,  unlooked  for  position  of 
things — matters  beyond  and  above  our  comprehension — do 
actually  take  |)lace  in  a  system  of  things  which  we  acknowl- 
edge to  be  divine;  then  similar  grounds  of  objection  are  no 
sound  arguments  against  the  Christian  Revelation.  The 
same  objections  as  men  bring  against  Christianity,  may  be 
brought  against  natural  religion;  and  if  they  are  of  no  force 
in  the  one  case,  so  neither  are  they  in  the  other. i 

It  may,  therefore,  be  the  trial  most  appropriate  to  our 
state  of  probation,  that  some  of  the  evidences  of  Christian- 

(■l)  Butler. 


LECT.  XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  235 

ity  should  be  thouglit  liable  to  objections,  which,  tliouo-h 
trifling  in  themselves,  when  discussed,  yet  may  puzzle  an 
inexperienced  mind,  and  may  carry  it  off  from  truth  and 
holiness. 

The  state  of  things  as  to  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  is 
precisely  what  it  is  as  to  many  of  the  most  important  truths 
of  natural  religion.  They  do  not  all  lie  upon  the  surface, 
some  of  them  are  open  to  many  exceptions,  they  are  col- 
lected only  from  the  whole  of  a  series  of  considerations,  are 
of  little  weiglit  unless  men  will  be  serious,  devout,  attentive; 
they  are  not  seen  if  men  will  begin  on  the  side  of  objec- 
tions.' 

Indeed,  the  human  mind  is  so  constituted,  or  is  so  weak- 
ened since  the  fill,  that  moral  and  religious  truth  can  be 
received  in  no  other  way  than  by  beginning  with  positive 
evidences,  and  overlooking  objections  and  difficulties.  The 
mind  can  always  frame  subtilties,  perceive  obstacles,  pre- 
sent plausible  sophisms.  Something  may  always  be  said  by 
a  perverse  or  weak  or  over-curious  disputant.  But  why 
did  I  say,  in  moral  and  religious  questions? — in  every  ques- 
tion, in  matters  even  of  science,  as  we  before  observed,  the 
fruitful  mind  of  man  can  excite  a  host  of  imaginations.  It 
is  one  of  our  primary  duties  to  Almighty  God,  to  subdue 
these  treacherous  risings  of  our  minds,  to  view  a  great 
question  like  Christianity,  in  its  ri<j;ht  light,  to  begin  with 
plain  matters  of  fact  in  its  historical  proofs,  to  leave  difficul- 
ties and  speculative  reasonings  till  the  student,  being  well 
furnished  with  knowledge  and  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
Christianity,  is   able  to  cope  with   them   safely. 

(r)  We  sec,  in  fact,  from  the  Scriptures,  that  ohjcctions  were  ever  made  against 
truth.  The  History  of  the  Jews  is  a  history  of  the  cavils  and  difliculties  advanced 
by  that  people  against  Moses,  and  Samuel,  and  the  other  prophets.  The  Gospels 
abound  with  the  discourses  of  our  Lord  against  the  objections  of  the  Jews  of  his  day. 
The  Acts  and  Epistles  are  much  engaged  in  answering  or  silencing  the  vain  disputa- 
tions of  men.  Thelaiigunge  of  St.  Peter  in  the  passage  which  I  read  as  my  te.\t,  is 
conclusive  on  the  same  subject.  The  scoffers  are  there  descrilicd,  fnsl,  in  their  moral 
slate — timjwalk  after  their  own  lusts;  and  then  in  their  objections  against  (."Inistianity 
— and  S'Ujin^,  Where  is  the  promise  of  Itis  coming?  for  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all 
things  continue  as  tlieij  did  from  the  creation  of  the  world.  All  this  goes  to  prove  that 
vain  reasonings  are  to  be  expected  as  a  trial  of  our  faith. 


236  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXI. 

Thus,  on  the  whole,  these  objections  arc  clearly  only 
trials  of  our  sincerity  and  sultniission  of  heart  to  God.  They 
arc  really  in  favor  of  the  Evidences  of  our  faith.  'J'liat 
Christianity  should  seem  open  to  them,  is  an  argument  that 
it  is  a  part  of  the  same  divine  government  which  lies  open 
to  the  same  objections  in  the  natural  order  of  the  world. 
That  men  should  be  exposed  to  them,  is  an  argument  to 
prove  the  divine  origin  of  the  Revelation:  all  is  consistent 
and  harmonious  in  the  manifestations  of  the  same  glorious 
God  to  man. 

And  when  the  nature  of  the  reasonings  against  Revela- 
tion is  considered,  the  argument  turns  yet  more  entirely  in 
favor  of  the  religion  they  would  oppose. 

For  we  may  be  sure  that  every  thing  that  can  be  urged 
against  so  holy  and  sublime  a  Revelation  as  Christianity, 
has  been  diligently  sought  for.  We  have  all  that  can  be 
said.  If  then  the  objections  of  unbelievers  amount  to  noth- 
ing more  than  a  certain  nimiber  of  speculative  difficulties, 
which  might  as  easily  be  raised  against  natural  religion,  as 
against  Revelation;  if  it  appears  that  these  objections  are 
bottomed  upon  mere  airy  opinions  of  the  human  mind:  if, 
besides  the  vanity  of  the  objections  in  themselves,  they  are 
directed  to  a  wrong  point,  and  are  altogether  inadmissible, 
so  long  as  the  mass  of  historical  evidences  remains  untouch- 
ed; if,  moreov(;r,  they  are  full  of  contradictions  and  incon- 
sistences; and  after  all,  are  frivolous  and  futile, — if  all  this 
be  so,  then  I  say,  such  objections  rather  confirm  than 
weaken  the  Christian  evidences — then  1  say,  it  is  no  small 
argument  in  favor  of  Christianity,  that  after  two  thousand 
years,  nothing  solid,  nothing  tangible,  nothing  resting  upon 
facts,  should  be  substantiated  against  it. 

Nay,  I  assert  further,  that  such  vapid  objections  turn 
completely  against  those  who  advance  them,  because,  whilst 
they  make  nothing  against  the  evidences  of  Christianity, 
which  they  do  not  venture  to  touch,  and  as  little  against  its 
contents,  which  they  cannot  shake,  they  leave  unaccounted 
for  all  the  facts  existing  before  the  eyes  of  men,  in  all  ages, 
and  staring  every  man  full  in  the  face,  in  the  present.  Infi- 
delity, whilst  framing  speculations  against  Christianity,  leaves 


LECT.    XXr.l  FVTDF.Nrr.S    of    rTfRlSTrANTTV.  237 

her  own  citadel  undefended.  We  take  her  up  on  lier  own 
ground.  We  ask  her,  supposing  her  objections  to  be  grant- 
ed, and  Christianity  to  be  accounted  not  of  divine  author- 
ity, whence  the  religion  arose.'^  Who  were  the  authors  of 
it?  What  was  its  origin?  Who  was  its  founder.^  What 
gave  success  to  the  unarmed  apostles?  Wfiat  made  the 
weakest  and  most  despised  of  causes  to  triumph  over  tiie 
most  powerful  and  most  honored?  What  produced  the  great- 
est revolution  in  the  human  mind  which  the  world  ever 
witnessed,  the  overthrow  of  heathenism,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  Ghristicinity?  What  has  preserved  the  religion,  and 
carried  on  its  triumphs  to  the  present  hour?  What  has  in- 
fused into  its  inward  frame-work  such  an  adaptation  to  the 
state  and  wants  of  man — such  a  sublimity  of  doctrine — such 
a  purity  of  morals — such  a  beneficial  tendency?  What  ac- 
counts for  the  pre-eminent  holiness  and  loveliness  uf  the 
character  of  Christ?  Wiiat  gives  the  religion  tiie  actual 
glory  and  efficacy  of  which  every  humble  inquirer  may 
make  a  trial  upon  himself,  and  in  his  own  case? 

The  credulity  of  unbelief  is  the  most  extraordinary  of  all 
phenomena  in  the  moral  world.  It  can  lepose  on  mere 
speculative  objections,  in  the  teeth  of  history  and  expe- 
rience; and  yet  it  can  believe  all  the  absurdities  and  impos- 
sibilities which  the  consequences  of  rejecting  Revelation 
bring  with  them!  It  can  reject  all  the  mighty  credentials 
of  Revelation,  on  the  footing  of  imaginary  difficulties;  and 
yet  it  can  believe  that  Christianity  had  no  founder,  no  ori- 
gin, no  cause,  no  author — but  was  the  product  of  ciiance 
and  accident! 

No!  such  objections  prove  the  truth  of  the  religion  which 
they  impugn;  such  reasonings  go  to  confirm  the  evidences 
they  would  destroy.  The  weapons  of  unbelief  are  thus 
wrested  from  its  feeble  grasp,  and  are  turned  against  itself. 
Our  foes  fall  by  their  own  arms.  Infidelity  cannot  stand,  if 
left  to  its  own  cause.  Its  suicidal  hand  inflicts  the  mortal 
bl<MV.  Never  was  there  such  a  case  as  that  of  infidelity  ex- 
hibited before  the  eyes  of  mankind.  Let  the  young  and 
cundlJ  in(iuircr  judge. 


238  LEPTTTRFQ     ON     TVfV  [^I.P.CT.    XXI. 

Christianity  comes  forth  surrounrlecl  with  facts,  historical 
proofs,  an  apparatus  of  magnificent  miracles,  a  series  of 
prophecies  fulfilling  before  the  eyes  of  mankind,  a  super- 
natural propagation  and  preservation  of  the  gospel  in  the 
world,  prominent  and  obvious  good  effects  as  to  every  thing 
that  touches  human  happiness:  Infidelity  comes  forth  with 
petty  objections,  speculative  reasonings,  vain  imaginations. 
Christianity  invites  you  to  believe  on  far  stronger  grounds 
of  faith  than ynen  are  governed  by  every  day:  Infidelity 
tempts  you  to  disbelieve,  on  grounds  which  no  single  human 
being  ever  acted  upon  in  common  life.  Christianity  draws 
her  arguments  not  from  human  reasonings,  but  from  God, 
from  facts,  from  experience,  from  the  plainest  dictates  of 
moral  duty,  from  proofs  tangible  and  level  to  our  capacity 
of  judging:  Infidelity  draws  her  objections  from  the  corrupt 
heart  of  man,  from  theory,  from  conjecture,  from  the  plainest 
contradictions  to  common  sense,  from  reasonings  out  of  our 
reach  and  beyond  our  capacities.  Christianity  calls  on  us 
to  obey  her  Revelation,  as  the  remedy  of  our  maladies,  and 
a  stupendous  salvation  from  eternal  death;  and  makes  all 
her  discoveries  and  mysteries  intelligible  and  simple  in  re- 
spect to  our  duties  and  wants:  Infidelity  calls  us  to  specula- 
tion and  presumption;  denies  the  malady;  concerns  herself 
with  finding  fault  with  the  mysteries  which  she  will  not  ap- 
ply aright,  and  leaves  man  without  salvation,  without  guid- 
ance, without  consolation,  without  hope — a  wanderer  in  the 
wilderness  of  the  world. 

Such  is  the  real  character  of  Infidel  objections,  or  rather, 
such  are  the  arguments  in  favor  of  Christianity,  wliich  objec- 
tions so  weak  and  unreasonable  furnish. 

What,  then,  practically,  is  the  hold  which  such  objec- 
tions have  of  men.'  flow  is  it  that  they  still  prevail  with  so 
many.-*  Whence  is  it  that  infidelity,  with  suc/i  a  miserable 
destitution  of  argument,  still  triumphs  so  wid-jly  amongst  the 
young?  The  answer  is,  that  the  objections  fix  in  unfurnished 
and  vain  minds;  that  they  follow  upon  vicious  habits;  that 
they  are  the  judicial  infliction  of  the  provoked  Spirit  of 
God;  that  they  carry  oif  those  who  have  no  real  hold  of 
Christianity;  that  they  are  the  great  stratagem  of  the  spirit- 


LECT.    XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  239 

ual  adversary;  that  they  are   the   most  fatal   product  of  the 
corrupt  and  proud  reason  of  a  fallen  creature. 
Let  us,  in  conclusion  touch  on  these  topics. 

I.  I  say  these  wretched  sophisms  of  infidelity  fix  them- 
sEi.vKs  IN  UNFUUNISHED  AND  VAIN  MINUS.  Curlosity,  admi- 
ration of  mere  talents,  the  love  of  novelty,  the  prurient  de- 
sire to  know  what  unbelievers  have  to  say,  open  the  mind 
to  the  arts  of  the  scoffer.  Men  are  unfurnished  with  the  full 
knowledge  of  the  grounds  of  their  faith,  and  are  unequal  for 
a  contest  with  subtle  disputants.  There  is  no  saying  what 
havoc  objections  make  when  young  people  are  not. called 
to  consider  them;  when  they  presumptuously,  and  from 
mere  curiosity,  allow  them  to  dwell  in  the  mind;  when  they 
begin  on  the  side  of  these  speculations,  instead  of  the  side 
of  the  positive  evidences  of  Christianity.  Avoid,  therefore, 
playing  with  the  snare.  Dread  exposing  yourselves  to  ^/le 
pestilence  which  walketh  in  darkness.  Tamper  not  with  temp- 
tation.    This  is  my  first  caution. 

II.  Shun,  in  the  next  place,  those  vices,  which  pre- 
pare FOR  INFIDEL  OBJECTIONS.  Scnsuality  is  the  mother 
and  nurse  of  unbelief.  The  proud,  profligate  youth  finds 
Christianity  stand  in  his  way.  He  says,  "Give  me  rea- 
sons against  the  Bible;  and  if  there  are  none,  I  will  invent 
some."  His  unbelief  is  the  fruit  of  his  passions  and  of  his 
intellectual  and  moral  rebellion  against  God.  It  is  not  the 
conviction  of  satisfied  research,  but  the  haste  and  presump- 
tion of  an  uninformed  and  vicious  mind.  We  need  not 
wonder  tliat  proflligate  persons  of  great  natural  talents  fall 
into  infidelity;  for  the  main  objection  is  antecedent  to 
the  production  of  any  evidence;  and  it  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  they  should  have  made  themselves  masters  of  the  mer- 
its of  the  casc.i  A  natural  consequence  of  the  continued 
violation  or  disregard  of  any  law,  is  a  doubt  or  denial  of  its 
auth(irity.  Shun,  therefore,  O  young  man,  the  vices  which 
would  make  you  desire  to  find  some  hold  aiiaiiist  Christian- 
ity.    Reverence  conscience — imitate  the  examples  of  your 

(q)  Sliuttlcworili's  Sermons. 


240  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXI. 

virtuous  Christian  friends — follow  your  Bible  as  the  guide 
of  life;  and  your  objections  will  presently  vanish. 

III.  Pkovokk  not,  in  the  third  place,  I  would  entreat 
you — provoke  not  the  good  Spiuit  ok  God  to  Dfc:PART 
FUOM  YOU,  and  give  you  up  to  judicial  blindness  and  obdu- 
racy of  heart.  If  you  go  on  in  vain  curiosity  and  idle  in- 
tercourse with  the  scoffer;  if  you  live  in  vice  and  moral 
evils  contrary  to  known  duty — icar  lest  the  blessed  guide 
and  sanctifier  of  man  should  be  grieved,  and  should  depart 
from  you.  I  address  you  as  the  disciple  of  the  Christian 
religion;  I  address  you  as  one  who  knows  the  divine  agent 
and  author  of  grace;  I  address  you  as  one  who  knows  the 
ordinary  dealings  of  the  Almighty,  whose  Spi7-it  doth  not 
always  strive  with  man;  '"  but  who  left  Pharaoh  to  his  impen- 
itent heart;  who  consigned  the  Jews  to  obduracy  and  unbe- 
lief; and  who  threatens  all  who  love  not  the  truth,  but  have 
pleasure  in  unrighteousness,  tvith  being  given  up  to  a  strong 
delusion  to  believe  a  lieJ  If  once  given  up  of  God,  any 
objections  will  avail  to  turn  you  from  Christianity;  the 
v.'eakest  sophisms  will  be  too  strong  for  you;  the  mightiest 
host  of  facts  and  historical  evidences  will  appear  of  no  force 
in  your  view;  you  will  go  on  from  worse  to  worse — from 
negligence  to  scorn;  from  speculative  to  practical  unbelief; 
from  the  trifling  and  indcvout,  to  the  daring  and  presump- 
tuous temper,  which  defies  God,  disowns  the  Saviour,  and 
rushes  madly  upon  eternity. 

IV.  In   order   to  avoid  any  approach   to  this   fatal  end, 

SEE    THAT    YOU    HAVi:    A    REAL    HOLD    OF    CHRISTIANITY     IN    ITS 

SUBSTANTIAL  RLESsiNGs — in  its  actual  efficacy  upon  your 
heart  and  life.  Speculative  objections  have  little  force 
to  perplex  the  practical  and  spiritually-minded  Christian. 
He  has  the  shield  of  faith,  which  quenches  all  the  fiery  darts 
of  the  wicked  one.  On  the  other  hand,  he  who  has  never 
felt  religion,  and  known  its  power,  has  a  great  disadvantage 
in  coping  with  an  ingenious  disputant.  His  heart  having 
never  been  affected  and  blessed  with  Christianity,  he  holds 
by  it  slightly;  he  rather  hangs  upon   it,  than  embraces  it; 

(r)  Gen.  vi.  a  (s)  2Thcss.  ii.  11,  12. 


LECT.  XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  241 

he  retains  it  merely  by  an  hereditary  prejudice:  he  sees  no 
reason  why  opinions  and  sentiments  should  be  thought  of  so 
great  consequence;  he  thinks,  perhaps,  all  opinions  immate- 
rial. Christianity  has  never  given  him  an  actual  power  against 
his  passions;  Christianity  has  never  raised,  and  blessed,  and 
consoled  his  heart  in  affliction;  Christianity  has  never 
brought  him  to  pardon,  peace,  and  a  new  and  heavenly  life; 
Ciiristianity  is  to  him  little  more  than  a  code  of  restraints? 
with  certain  religious  ceremonies  attached  to  them.  Thus 
sitting  loose  to  all  that  is  vital  in  his  religion,  what  wonder 
is  it,  if,  when  infidelity  spreads  its  snares,  he  is  taken?  Let 
the  young,  then,  seek  for  the  practical  influences  of  Chris- 
tianity; let  them  make  a  trial  of  its  promised  grace;  let 
them  know  it  as  thk  power  of  God  unto  salvation — and 
scientific  reasonings  will  never  overthrow  their  strong  and 
well-grounded  faith.     For, 

V.  They  will  soon  discover  that  the  objections  of  infi- 
delity are,  in  truth,  one  of  the  cheat  stratagems  of 
SATAN,  the  spiritual  ADVERSARY.  They  Icam  from  Rev- 
elation the  power,  the  malice,  the  artifice  of  that  apostate 
spirit.  They  know  that,  from  the  period  of  his  successful 
temptation  of  our  first  parents,  he  has  been  systematically 
opposing  THE  seed  of  the  avoman,  who  was  so  long  prom- 
ised, and  wjio,  at  length,  appeared  to  destroy  the  works  of 
the  devil.  They  know  that  this  deadly  adversary  has  in- 
stigated, in  diflTerent  ages,  various  instruments  for  hardening 
the  heart  of  man,  and  defeating  the  purposes  of  redemption, 
lie  worked  by  heathen  idolatry,  so  long  as  that  could  be 
sustained;  he  worked  by  superstition  and  spiritual  bondage, 
during  the  dark  ages;  he  works  now  by  speculative  objec- 
tions, the  abuse  of  literature,  a  confidence  in  talents,  edu- 
cation, and  the  reasoning  powers  of  man.  Behold,  then, 
in  this  one  consideration,  the  wliolc  web  of  infidel  specula- 
tions unravelled.  No  wonder  tiiese  vain  and  futile  fabrica- 
tions, though  possessing  little  force  in  themselves  against 
positive  facts,  though  directed  to  a  wrong  point  and  inad- 
missible, though  inconsistent  and  contradictory  and  frivo- 
lous, the  manifest  product  of  human  pride  and  ignorance; 
no  wonder  they  still  deceive  so  many — for  the  secret  is  now 
31 


242  LECTUltES    OX    THE  [lECT.    XXI 

laid  open.  The  whole  system  is  a  part  of  Satan's  agency 
with  the  intent  to  ruin  man.  They  are  temptations,  not 
reasons;  the  shafts  of  the  wicked  one,  not  the  armor  of 
truth. 

Resist,  then,  these  assaults  of  your  spiritual  adversary; 
cherish  not  the  imaginations  which  subserve  your  own  de- 
struction; treat  them  as  you  would  the  robber  who  should 
enter  your  dwelling,  to  spoil  it  of  your  most  valuable  pos- 
sessions; quench  the  suggestions  of  the  arch-deceiver,  and 
open  your  hearts  to  the  fair  and  manly  operations  of  con- 
science and  truth. 

VI.     Finally,  consider  these  vain  objections  as  the  most 

DEADLY  product  OF  THE  CORRUPT  AND   PROUD  REASON  OF 

A  FALLEN  CREATURE.  This  is  the  sum  of  the  present  Lec- 
ture, which  I  must  hasten  to  conclude.  Objections  are  the 
offspring  of  man's  corrupt  and  depraved  nature,  where  all 
the  faculties  of  body  and  soul  are  disturbed  and  weakened. 
They  form  an  unhealthy  atmosphere  around  this  lower 
world.  Christianity  comes  to  remedy  the  evil.  It  calls  for 
the  humiliation  of  the  understanding  before  the  revealed 
will  of  God,  and  the  subjection  of  the  passions  and  appetites 
to  the  revealed  precepts  of  God.  It  is  as  much  a  branch  of 
moral  duty  to  believe,  when  God  grants  such  evidences 
as  he  has  done  in  the  case  of  Christianity,  as  it  is  to  restrain 
the  inferior  appetites,  when  the  same  almighty  Lord  has 
issued  his  prohibitions  against  vice  and  immorality.  To 
reject  interposing  doubts,  to  turn  away  from  objections,  to 
silence  vain  curiosity,  to  rebuke  presumptuous  daring,  to 
check  the  roving  imaginations  of  the  intellect;  to  call  in  the 
aid  of  grace  for  this  end;  to  quench  the  suggestions  of  Sa- 
tan by  the  blessed  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  to  enter  more  and 
more  into  the  practical  experience  of  religion — this  is  the 
wisdom  of  man.  This  purifies  the  atmosphere,  or  guards  us 
from  its  destructive  qualities.  Tiiis  teaches  us  to  consider 
all  speculative  objections  which  rise  in  the  mind  against  the 
evidences  or  the  matter  of  Christianity,  as  the  noxious  va- 
pors generated  in  a  purient  soil — as  the  product  of  reason 
weakened  and  perverted — as  the  arts  of  Satan  operating 
upon  a  sinful  imagination. 


LECT.    XXI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  243 

Cling,  then,  to  Christianity  as  your  light  and  protection. 
She  throws  a  safeguard  and  barrier  around  you  in  a  dark 
world.  She  detects  the  sophistry  of  infidelity,  and  sends 
you  unhurt  to  pursue  your  salvation,  in  the  midst  of  the 
errors  and  confusions  of  this  probationary  state — she  guards 
you  from  the  unhealthy  vapors  which  collect  around,  and 
prevents  the  explosions  which  would  otherwise  prove  fatal 
to  you. 

Yes;  as  the  miner  is  furnished  with  the  lamp  of  safety, 
and  obtains  light  and  security  when  he  descends  the  subter- 
raneous cavern,  where  the  fire-damp  might  explode  and  bury 
him  in  destruction;  and  as,  guided  by  his  lamp,  he  is  pro- 
tected from  the  fatal  dangers  of  combustion,  pursues  his 
calling,  and  returns  to  his  home  and  his  family  and  the  light 
of  day,  unhurt. 

So  does  Christianity  furnish  you  with  the  true  safety 
LAMP,  when  called  to  descend  the  caverns  and  depths  of 
Satan,  in  this  benighted  world — so  does  Christianity  neu- 
tralize and  carry  off  the  mischievous  effects  of  infidelity — 
so  does  she  shield  your  mind  and  surround  you  with  a  de- 
fence, which,  whilst  it  affords  you  light  and  security  for 
your  work,  preserves  you  from  the  fatal  dangers  to  which 
an  unprotected  heart  might  be  exposed,  and  sends  you  up 
again  in  safety,  to  the  ordinary  discharge  of  your  Christian 
calling  in  the  cheering  light  of  day. 


LECTURE   XXII. 


THE    LIVES    AND    DEATHS    OF    INFIDELS    COM- 
PARED   WITH     THOSE    OF     SINCERE 
CHRISTIANS. 

Psalm  xxxvii.  35 — 37. 

I  have  seen  the  ivicked  in  great  power,  and  spreading  himself 
like  a  green  bay-tree.  Yet  he  passed  away,  and,  lo,  he  was 
not;  yea  1  sought  him,  hut  he  could  not  he  found.  Mark  the 
perfect  man  and  behold  the  upright;  for  the  end  of  that  man 
is  peace. 

Having  shown  the  vanity  and  futility  of  the  speculative 
objections  raised  against  Ciiristianity,  we  proceed  now  to 
consider  the  lives  and  deaths  of  those  who  advance  them. 
For  if  the  general  character  of  infidels  should  be  found  to 
be  utterly  inconsistent  with  truth  and  sincerity  in  a  religious 
inquiry,  and  the  general  character  of  sincere  Christians 
entirely  consistent  with  them;  we  shall  have  an  additional 
proof  thai  objections  against  the  Bible  are  the  mere  otT- 
spring  of  human  corruption,  and  that  the  Christian  faith  is 
indeed  of  God. 

<'By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  is  an  adage  not  only 
of  revealed,  but  of  natural  religion.  We  shall  bring  before 
you,  then,  the  two  chisses;  those  who  give  way  to  specula- 
tive infidel  objections:  and  those  who  devoutly  believe  and 
obey  the  Christian  Revchilion.  We  shall  summons  the 
body  of  sceptics  who  have  imbibed  and  followed  out  into 
practice  the  cavils  of  infidelity;  and  contrast  them  with  the 
body  of  sincere  Christians,  who  have  received  and  followed 


LECT.  XXH.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  245 

out  into  practice  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible.  We  shall  not 
select  doubtful,  ambiguous  cases  which  hover  between 
faith  and  unbelief,  but  decisive  characters  on  each  side — 
the  thorough  infidel,  and  the  spiritual  and  humble  Christian; 
and  we  shall  contrast  them  as  to  the  tenor  of  their 
lives;  their  writings  and  public  labors;  and  their  deaths 
AND  preparation  foi  an  eternal  state  of  being. 

Let  us, 

I.  Contrast  the  two  classes  as   to  the  tenor  of  their 

LIVES. 

In  doing  this  let  us  consider  their  respective  mainten- 
ance of  their  common  principles  of  morals  and  religion — 
their  discharge  of  the  duties  of  domestic  and  social  life — 
and  their  measure  of  benevolence  and  goodwill  to  their 
fellow  creatures. 

1.  Let  us  contrast  the  infidel  with  the  true  Christian,  as 

to    the    MAINTENANCE    OF     THE      PRINCIPLES     OF      MORALS     AND 

RELIGION  HELD  BY  THEM  IN  COMMON.  I  Say,  held  by  them 
in  common,  because  I  wish  fo  concede  all  that  is  asked. 
Allow  the  infidel  his  professed  principles  of  natural  religion; 
and  then  contrast  the  manner  in  which  he  maintains  them 
with  the  conduct  of  the  sincere  believer. 

And  here  a  very  few  words  will  suffice.  We  have 
already  shown  the  absence  of  any  thing  like  a  candid  and 
devout  temper  in  the  inquiries  of  infidels, '^  and  their  ina- 
bility to  sustain  or  restore  the  principles  of  natural  religion 
when  unaided  by  revelation.''  We  have  noticed  likewise 
that  entire  want  of  any  real  intention  of  carrying  into 
effect  the  principles  of  morals,  which  marks  their  conduct.*" 
The  fact  is,  they  seem  to  have  no  principles,  except  those 
of  a  general  scepticism  and  contempt  of  all  religion. 
Grant  them  all  they  ask  in  a  moment  of  controversy,  and 
trace  out  afterwards  the  way  in  which  they  maintain  their 
principles,  and  you  will  see  that  they  leave  no  foundation 
to  build  upon.  They  profess  to  believe  in  one  living  and 
true  God,  to  admit  some  of  his  essential  and  moral  attri- 
butes— his  omnipresence  and  omniscience,  and  his  govern- 

(a)  Led.  ii.  (b)  Lect.  iii.  (e)  Led.  xvi. 


24G  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXll. 

ment  of  the  world — they  profess  to  hold  the  moral  and 
accountable  nature  of  man,  his  obligations  to  virtue  and 
piety,  to  the  worship  of  his  Maker,  and  to  the  duties  of 
repentance,  prayer,  and  thanksgiving,  for  the  divine  bene- 
fits. They  profess  to  admit  the  principles  of  morals  as 
held  by  the  Heathen  sages,  and  improved  by  modern  philos- 
ophy. But  the  very  enumeration  of  these  topics  has  the 
appearance  of  sarcasm,  when  applied  to  infidelity.  Con- 
tradictions without  end,  as  we  mentioned  in  our  last  Lec- 
ture,*^ seem  purposely  scattered  in  all  they  say,  as  it  were 
with  the  view  of  sapping  all  the  elements  of  morals  and 
religion.  They  now  appear  for  an  instant  to  favor  Chris- 
tianity; and  now,  by  opposing  all  religion  generally,  they 
show  that  their  hostility  is  merely  a  feeling  against  it,  as 
included  in  the  common  mass.  They  are  continually 
making  efforts  to  oblige  themselves  to  think  after  a  certain 
fashion,  which  violates  conscience,  and  those  remains  of 
natural  light  which  nothing  can  altogether  obliterate  from 
the  heart  of  man,  whilst  a  real  fear  of  the  other  side  is  still 
lurking  within.  The  infidel  maintains  little  more,  in  point 
of  principle,  than  a  vague  knowledge  of  God,  adopted  from 
a  blind  deference  lo  the  public  sentiment,  and  a  general 
profession  of  the  obligation  of  virtue,  to  spare  the  pains  of 
examination,  or  from  fear  of  making  himself  too  sure  about 
it.  Where  is  there  a  single  example  of  the  essential  princi- 
ples of  religion  and  virtue  being  really  and  bona  Jide  maintain- 
ed in  the  face  of  the  world,  by  infidels?  There  are  many 
nominal  Christians,  indeed,  who  sink  down  into  natural  re- 
ligion from  want  of  acquaintance  with  the  peculiarities  of 
their  faith;  but  where  is  the  example  of  an  unbeliever  acting 
up  to  his  own  principles,  low  and  general  as  those  princi- 
ples are? 

Now  contrast  with  all  this  the  manner  in  which  every  sin- 
cere and  pious  Christian  maintains,  and  maintains  at  all 
hazards,  and,  if  needs  be  in  the  face  of  persecution,  exile, 
and  death,  the  primary  elements  of  religion  and  morals.  In 
infidelity  we  find  no  one  principle  firm,  permanent,  uniform; 

(d)  Lect.  xxi. 


LECT.    XXII.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  247 

in  Christianity  it  is  all  principle.  Every  thing  is  wlmt  you 
would  expect  in  a  true  religion — it  is  first  cordially  believed, 
and  then  boldly  and  perseveringly  avowed. 

In  the  bosom  of  every  real  believer,  there  is  not  merely  a 
profession  of  the  knowledge  of  God,  his  unity,  his  perfec- 
tions, his  sovereignty,  his  providence,  his  law;  but  there  is  an 
honest,  straight-forward  purpose  to  maintain  them  in  all 
their  extent  and  purity. 

It  is  true,  that  the  contrast   here    is  not  always   immedi- 
ately visible.    The  want  of  principle  in  infidels  is  easily  seen 
in  their  avowed  spirit,  in  their  public  opinions,  in  their  open 
blasphemies,  in  their  contradictory  statements — the   case  is 
notorious.     But  the  inward  piety  and  reverence  for  God,  in 
the  breast  of  the  true  Christian,  are  not  so  apparent;  these 
are    hidden    guests,  to    be   judged    of   cautiously   by    their 
appropriate    fruit.     And   the  name  of  Christian  being   now 
too  often  assumed,  where  there   is  no  one    characteristic   of 
real  Christianity,  it  is  easy  to  evade  the  force  of  our  reason- 
ing.    But  to  those  who  will  examine  the   subject  with   can- 
dor, the    diflerence    is  plain.      Most  of  the  young    persons, 
whom  I  have  especially  in  view  in  these  Lectures,  know  the 
broad  distinction  between  insincere  and  sincere  Christians; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  equally  broad  distinction  between 
a  piety  which  lies  hidden  in  its  princij)les  in  the  heart,  and 
a  scorn  and  irreligion  which  provoke  observation.    I  appeal 
to   all   who   are   acquainted   with   true  Christians,   whether 
they  do  not  maintain  their   principles;  whether   they  do  not 
aim  at  bringing   the  great   and  ever-blessed  God  into  every 
thing;  into  all  their  opinions;  into  all  their  habits  of  thought; 
all   their    projects;    all    their  schemes   of  happiness.     They 
worship  him;    they  pray   to  him   daily  in   tiieir  closets  and 
their  famiHes;  they  dedicate  one  day  in  seven  to  his  honor; 
they  bring    up  their  children  according   to  his  comniand- 
ments;  they  strive  to   propagate    his    name  throughout    the 
world.     The  great  God    of  heaven    is,  with  them,  restored 
to  that  just   dominion  of  which  sin  had    deprived   him;  he 
is  their   glory,  their  boast,  their   confidence,  the  object  of 
their  love,  and   the  source  of  their  felicity. 


248  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXII. 

Then,  as  to  the  principles  of  morals,  every  Christian  aims 
sincerely  at  maintaining  them,  with  all  boldness  and  hon- 
esty, in  every  possible  way,  and  at  every  sacrifice.  They 
are  not  merely  acknowledged  as  a  theory,  but  they  are  con- 
stantly avowed  and  defended.  But  why  should  I  repeat 
the  Lecture  on  Christian  morals,  or  that  on  the  character  of 
our  Lord?  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  every  element  of  morals 
is  studiously  inculcated  and  enforced,  in  proportion  as  men 
are  real  Christians. 

In  j^hort,  the  contrast  between  infidelity  and  Christianity, 
in  this  first  sub-division  of  the  inquiry,  is  between  darkness 
and  light,  contradiction  and  harmony,  falsehood  and  truth; 
unprincipled  scepticism,  and  the  huly  subjection  of  faith;  a 
dereliction  of  all  conscientious  regard  to  religion  and  mor- 
als, and  t!ie  uniform  maintenance  of  both. 

What  avail,  then,  the  speculative  objections  of  men,  with 
no  firm  principles  to  set  out  with,  against  men  obeying  the 
Christian  Revelation,  on  the  fooling  of  its  positive  eviden- 
ces, and  maintaining,  boldly  and  perseveringly,  all  the 
moral  and  religious  principles  which  that  Revelation  eluci- 
dates and  extends.'' 

2.  But  let  us  contrast  the  lives  of  infidels  and  true 
Christians  in  another  point  of  view — theiu  uespective  dis- 
charge   OF     THE    duties    OF     DOMESTIC    AND      SOCIAL     LIFE 

that  is,  from  their  principles  let  us  proceed  to  their  practice. 
For,  as  both  classes  profess  a  belief  in  a  righteous  governor 
of  the  world,  it  may  be  expected  that  those  who  have  truth 
on  their  side,  will  show  it  by  the  superior  discharge  of 
moral  and  religious  duties;  more  especially  as  the  question 
regards  such  an  all-important  matter  as  Christianity,  and 
bears  upon  duties  acknowledged  in  common  to  be  binding 
on  man. 

Now,  it  is  notorious,  from  their  own  avowals,  from  the 
memoirs  written  by  themselves  and  boasted  of,  from  the 
comparison  of  documents  of  all  kinds,  as  well  as  from  our 
own  daily  observation,  that  vanity  and  pride,  selfishness  and 
sensuality,  malice  and  revenge,  turbulent  tempers  and  out- 
raf^eous  violations  of  the  domestic  virtues;  impurity  and 
profligacy  of  the  grossest  form;   treachery  in   situations  of 


LECT.  XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  249 

trust,  and  want  of  ordinary  honesty  and  integrity  in  deal- 
ings, discontented  and  seditious  conduct  in  civil  society; 
contempt  of  all  established  order  in  church  and  state,  con- 
nected often  with  a  hatred  of  their  native  country;  in  short, 
selfish,  malignant,  debasing,  anti-social  passions  and  ten- 
dencies have,  in  all  ages  and  places,  distinguished  infidelity, 
as  a  system. 

I  speak  not  of  individuals,  but  of  the  general  class.  I 
appeal  to  the  records  of  our  courts  of  judicature;  I  appeal 
to  our  statesmen  and  magistrates;  I  appeal  to  the  conscien- 
ces of  every  one  who  has  known  the  annals  of  Europe,  and 
the  chief  agents  in  the  revolutions  which  have  disturbed  it. 

There  are  examples,  no  doubt,  of  sober  deists,  vvher« 
pride,  intellectual  pursuits,  literary  ambition,  or  other 
causes,  have  predominated  over  the  grosser  appetites;  but 
evea  in  these  cases,  an  avowed  licentiousness  as  to  the  doc- 
trine of  morals;  a  ridicule  of  the  milder  Christian  virtues; 
an  extreme  selfishness  and  cold-heartcdiiess,  as  to  all  the 
best  interests  of  man,  have  varied  tlie  appearance,  without 
lessening  the  guilt,  of  their  general  conduct. 

The  lives  of  sincere  and  devout  Christians  are  precisely 
the  reverse  of  all  this.  Humility,  disinterestedness,  benevo- 
lence, meekness  of  temper,  purity  in  all  the  domestic  rela- 
tions, fidelity  in  situations  of  trust,  honesty  and  integrity  in 
their  dealings,  contentment  and  loyalty  in  civil  society, 
abstinence  from  scenes  of  tumult  and  disorder,  love  to  their 
native  country;  in  short,  every  virtuous,  amiable,  self-deny- 
ing, elevating  principle,  carried  out  into  act,  has,  in  all 
places,  distinguished  true  Christians,  as  a  body. 

Where  shall  I  turn  to  take  my  exami)les  of  these  general 
assertions?  On  the  side  of  infidelity,  I  pass  by  the  horrible 
character  of  Thomas  Paine.  I  say  nothing  of  his  frauds 
and  public  dishonesty,  his  cruelty  and  selfishness,  his  avarice 
and  pride,  his  ingratitude  and  treachery,  his  impiety  and 
blasphemies,  his  licentiousness  and  adultery;  I  pass  by  his 
deadly  enmity  against  his  osvn  country,  his  anarcliial  and 
revolutionary  principles,  his  determined  hostility  to  all  peace, 
all  law,  all  morals,  all  religion;  I  pass  by  the  disgusting 
filth  and  wretchedness  and  intoxication  into  which  he  sunk 
S2 


250  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXll. 

towards  the  decline  of.life — an  object  of  pity  and  contempt 
to  his  own  deluded  disciples.  To  dwell  on  such  a  charac- 
ter is  beneath  the  sanctity  of  our  subject;  from  such  a  life, 
what  could  spring  but  objections  and  resistance  to  the  pur- 
ity of  the  Christian  religion?  In  comparison  with  such  tur- 
pitude, the  lowest  measure  of  real  christian  virtue  in  the 
humblest  cottager,  after  abating  every  thing  on  the  score  of 
human  imperfection,  is  an  exalied  and  noble  state  of  attain- 
ment. 

But  let  us  come  to  the  leader  of  modern  infidelity,  who, 
for  more  than  sixty  years,  attracted  and  corrupted  so  large 
a  body  of  followers.  I  acknowledge  the  extraordinary  tal- 
ents of  Voltaire;  the  brilliancy  of  his  parts,  the  fecundity 
of  his  imagination,  the  versatility  which  could  apply  itself  to 
almost  every  subject;  the  beauty  of  a  style  which  lost  little 
of  its  charm  at  the  close  of  a  long  life;  the  diligence, 
which  was  never  wearied;  the  reputation  and  success  in 
some  branches  of  elegant  literature,  which  gave  him  so 
wide  a  sway  over  public  opinion.  But  I  ask  what  was  his 
MOKAL  AND  UELiGious  character.''  I  ask,  how  far  it  was 
probable  that  his  objections  against  Christianity  sprung 
from  a  sincere  and  steady  pursuit  of  truth.^  Talents,  if  sep- 
arated from  morality,  are  of  no  value  on  such  a  question  as 
religion.  Let  young  people  ever  remember,  that  angelic 
powers,  perverted  by  thorough  hatred  to  goodness,  are  the 
very  things  which  render  the  spiritual  adversary  of  mankind 
so  formidable  and  detestable. 

I  peruse,  then,  the  full  and  authentic  narratives  of  his 
life,  published  by  his  friends  and  disciples;  I  compare  the 
most  recent  accounts;  I  consult,  especially,  the  memoir 
lately  published  by  one  of  the  first  of  the  French  literati, 
and  a  person  by  no  means  unfriendly  to  the  fame  of  his 
hero.''  I  want  to  know  what  this  sarcastic  objector  to 
Christianity  was  in  his  moral  habits,  what  was  his  educa- 
tion; what  his  early  life;  what  the  course  and  bent  of  his 
pursuits.  I  want  to  see  how  far  truth,  religious  and  moral 
truth,  was  likely  to  visit  his  mind. 

(e)  M.  Au;j^(  r,  in  ilie  Biographic  Uni\er,ellc,  loin.  L., — compared  wiili  his  life  by 
Condorccl,  and  the  collections  of  the  Al>be  Barrucl. 


LECT.    XXII.]  EVIDENCES     OF     CHRISTIANITY.  251 

Impiety  received  him,  says  his  biographer,  *"  as  he  loft  the 
cradle.  He  learned  to  read  at  the  age  of  three  years,  by 
committing  an  irreligious  book  to  memory.  His  uncle,  to 
whose  care  he  was  intrusted,  boasted  that  he  had  thus 
early  initiated  him  into  infidelity.  When  a  boy  at  school, 
his  daring  blasphemies,  connected  with  his  natural  talents, 
induced  his  tutor  to  predict,  that  he  would  raise  the  stand- 
ard of  deism  in  France.  As  his  youth  advanced,  he  was 
admitted  into  those  horrible  associations  of  debauchees  and 
infidels,  in  the  highest  classes  of  society,  who  disgraced 
the  close  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  In  mature  life,  he 
was  remarkable  for  an  unsettled,  satirical,  impetuous  dispo- 
sition; a  temper  wayward,  even  to  malignity;  outrageous 
violations  of  the  decencies  of  the  domestic  circle;  ridicule 
and  hypocrisy  at  the  death-beds  of  his  friends;  duplicity, 
untruth,  and  even  perjury,  in  his  dealings;  artifice,  buffoon- 
ery, sarcasm,  and  the  most  unblushing  calumnies,  in  his 
controversies;  a  treachery  towards  his  friends,  so  deeply 
seated,  that  he  loaded  with  flatteries  and  caresses,  in  his  let- 
ters, the  very  persons  whom  he  was  at  the  same  time  cover- 
ing with  ridicule;  and  even  calumniated,  in  clandestine  writ- 
ings, some  of  those  individuals  on  whom  he  was  pouring 
forth,  in  his  ordinary  correspondence,  the  warmest  testimo- 
nies of  friendship  or  consideration.  As  he  approached  old 
age,  (he  lived  to  be  eighty-four,)  his  impiety  became  sys- 
tematic, restless,  aggressive,  persevering,  malignant,  and 
almost  furious.  All  seemed  to  him  to  be  lawful  in  his  con- 
test against  religion.  His  motives,  in  his  attacks  on  Chris- 
tianity, were  not  concealed.  So  far  from  pretending  to 
have  truth  on  his  side,  or  to  aim  at  truth,  he  was  accustomed 
to  say,  "I  am  weary  of  hearing  that  twelve  men  established 
the  gospel;  I  will  see  if  one  cannot  overthrow  it."  His 
enmity  and  hypocrisy  were  carried  so  far,  that  he  erected 
a  Christian  church,  adjoining  hi,s  chateau,  at  Ferney,  and 
dedicated  it  to  the  Almighty,  at  the  very  moment  that  he 
was  habitually  applying  to  the  divine  Saviour  of  mankind  a 
term  too  horrid  to  be  cited.     I  say  nothing  of  the  impurity 

(f)  M.  Auger. 


w 


252  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXII. 

of  his  conduct,  the  gross  obscenity  of  his  language  and 
conversation,  the  nott)rious  adultery  in  wfiich  he  hvcd;  be- 
cause all  this  he  avowed;  it  appears  in  all  he  said  and  did: 
it  is  thought,  indeed,  nothing  of  by  the  infidel  party;  it  forms 
the  conventional  style  of  their  books  and  corres[>ondence, 
and  constitutes  one  of  the  darkest  features  of  their  moral 
degradation. 

To  such  a  mind,  truth  must,  of  necessity,  have  been  a 
stranger.  Objections  against  Christianity  from  such  a 
scoffer,  are  honorable  and  glorious  attestations  to  the  relig- 
ion which  they  oppose. 

Now,   contrast   with  this  character   any  of   the  eminent 
Christians   that    adorned    their  own    country   and    Europe, 
about  the   same   period.     Take   the    Honorable    Robert 
Boyle,  of  whom  it  is  difficult  to  say,  whether   his  piety  as  a 
Christian,  or  his  fame  as  a  philosopher,  was   most   remarka- 
ble.    Consider  the  compass  of  his  mind,  the   solidity  of  his 
judgment,  the  fertility  of  his   pen,  the  purity  of  his   morals, 
the   amiableness  of  his  temper,  his  beneficence  to  the   poor 
and  distressed,  liis  uniform  friendships,  his  conscientious  aim 
at  truth  in  all  his  pursuits  and  determinations.     At  an  early 
age,  he  examined   the  question  of  the   Christian   religion  to 
the  bottom,  on  occasion  of  some   distracting  doubts   which 
assaulted  his  mind.     Confirmed  in   the  truth  of  Christianity, 
his  whole  life  was  a  comment  on  his  sincerity.     He  was  ad- 
mitted to  certain   secret  meetings,  before   he   had   reached 
mature  years — but  they  were  grave  and  enlightened  associa- 
tions,  for  canvassing   subjects   of  natural   philosophy,  at  a 
time  when  the  civil  warssuspended  all  academical  studies;  and 
they  led   to  the   formation  of  one  of  the   noblest  establish- 
ments of  his  country .ET     His  disinterestedness   and   humility 
were  such,  that  he  refused  the  provostship  of  Eton,  and  the 
honors  of  a  peerage,  that  he  might  devote  his   talents  and 
time,  and  noble  fortune,  to  works  of  public  utility  and  be- 
nevolence.    His  uniform  regard  to  truth,  made   him  the  ex- 
ample and  admiration  of  his  age.     His   tenderness  of  con- 
science led  him  to   decline   the   most  honorable   office''  in 
the  scientific   world,  because   he   doubted   about   the  oaths 

(g)  The  Royal  Society.  (h)  Prcsiilcnt  of  (lie  Royal  Society.  ' 


LECT.    XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  253 

prescribed;  and  his  reverence  for  the  glorious  Creator 
induced  him  to  pause  whenever  he  pronounced  his  name. 
From  such  a  student,  we  may  expect  truth.  From  such 
a  philosopher,  we  receive,  with  unmixed  pleasure,  A  Trea- 
tise    of    THE     HIGH      VENEKATION     WHICH     MAn's     INTELLECT 

OWES  TO    god;'  or  the  discourse  On  greatness    of    mind 

PROMOTED     BY    CuRISTIANITY.J 

But  I  dwell  not  on  a  single  name.  The  whole  body  of 
real  Christians  is  of  the  same  stamp.  Every  where  we  see 
the  good  father  and  mother,  the  obedient  child,-  the  faithful 
domestic,  the  trust-worthy  officer,  the  conscientious  magis- 
trate, tlie  honest  statesman,  the  patriotic  king.  Begin  with 
the  first  ages  of  Christianity,  and  contrast  the  respective 
discharge  of  moral  and  religious  duties  of  those  who  rejected 
and  those  who  embraced  the  Christian  religion.  Go  down 
in  each  succeeding  age.  Look  at  the  present.  Take  the 
body  of  infidels,  and  contrast  them  with  the  body  of  hum- 
ble and  pious  Christians.  You  see  in  the  one  a  frightful 
combination  of  all  the  intellectual  and  sensual  vices,  aggra- 
vated by  hypocrisy,  and  darkened  by  malice,  with  no  care 
of  examining  truth,  and  no  wish  to'  attain  it;  you  see  the 
domestic  virtues  contemned;  the  ties  of  brotherhood  dis- 
severed; you  see  such  immoralities  as  go  to  dissolve  civil 
society.  Yes,  infidelity  carries  with  it  the  seeds  of  its  own 
destruction;  its  enormities  are  too  dissocial  for  the  world 
long  to  endure  them.  It  is  Christianity  which  restrains 
their  excesses;  and  renders  the  society  tolerable,  which  is 
harassed  by  their   passions  and  their  wickedness. 

In  the  conduct  of  true  Christians,  you  see  all  the  bonds  of 
peace,  all  that  unites  man  witii  man,  all  that  blesses  the 
domestic  circle,  all  that  fulfils  the  various  obligations  under 
which  God  has  placed  us.  Yes,  Christianity  has  the  impress 
of  truth;  its  precepts  are  acted  upon  by  its  real  disciples; 
the  character  of  its  divine  Founder  is  copied  out  into  the 
lives  of  his  followers. 

3.  Let  us  pass  to  the  especial  point  of  benevolence  and 
GOODWILL  TOWARDS  MEN — ou  wliicli  infidelity  is  apt  to  de- 
claim; and  which  it  becomes  us  therefore  to  examine. 

(i)  Publislicil  in  1G85.  (j)  Published  in  IG'JO,  the  year  before  iiis  death. 


254  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXII. 

Now,  it  is  easy  to  aflect  a  plausible  benevolence,  which 
is  merely  indifl'erence  to  ihc  inclinations,  good  or  bad,  of 
others;  which  rather  deserves  the  name  of  connivance  in 
iniquity  than  real  and  enlightened  goodwill.  The  question 
is,  which  class  of  persons  is  animated  with  tiie  kindliest  feel- 
ings, is  most  free  from  the  selfish  passions,  is  most  amiable 
and  friendly  in  their  deportment,  most  awake  to  the  actual 
circumstances  and  dangers  with  which  men  are  surrounded, 
and  most  ready  to  do  and  to  suffer  the  necessary  privations 
for  delivering  them  from  them. 

No  doubt,  a  man  may  affect  great  benevolence  in  throw- 
ing the  reins  on  the  neck  of  youlliful  profligacy.  No  doubt, 
a  man  may  be  loud  in  his  claims  of  humanity,  when  he  re- 
leases men  from  the  obligations  of  religion  and  the  bonds 
of  conscience,  and  the  restraints  of  virtue.  No  doubt,  a 
plausible  claim  to  universal  benevolence  may  be  set  up  by 
the  infidel  philosophy,  which,  neglecting  all  private  and 
personal  duties,  launches  forth  into  an  expansive  and  sickly 
philanthropy,  and  affects  to  embrace  mankind,  whilst  it 
overlooks  its  own  immediate  circle. 

So  the  traveller  who,  assured  that  a  precipice  was  near, 
should  persuade  his  companion  that  no  such  danger  existed, 
and  should  tempt  him  to  approach  its  brink,  might  be  called 
benevolent.  So  the  piiilosopher  who  should  refuse  to  com- 
municate some  valuable  discovery  in  science,  and  should 
spend  his  life  in  petty  acts  of  indulgence  to  the  passions  of 
others,  might  be  called  benevolent.  So  the  governor,  who 
should  conceal  from  a  revolted  province  the  anger  of  its 
sovereign,  and  the  terms  on  which  reconciliation  might  be 
effected,  might  be  styled  humane. 

No!  real  goodwill  to  man  is  of  a  firmer  texture  and  calls 
for  other  conduct.  It  searches  for  truth.  It  takes  a  wide 
and  just  view  of  men's  circumstances.  It  proceeds  on  en- 
lightened and  adequate  principles.  It  aims  not  merely  at 
the  immediate,  but  the  ultimate  good  of  man.  It  consults, 
not  their  passions,  but  their  welfare — not  their  inclinations 
and  prejudices,  but  their  duties.  It  ofiends  rather  than  de- 
ceives. It  proposes  displeasing  truth,  rather  than  flatter  to 
destruction.     It  teaches  and  humbles,  that  it  may  save. 


LECT.    XXII.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  255 

In  this  view,  what  is  the  benevolence  of  infidelity?  Selfish 
in  all  its  tendencies,  it  has  nothing  of  the  genuine  sympa- 
thies which  open  the  whole  soul  of  man.  No  mark  of  the 
irreligious  temper  is  more  glaring,  than  its  dark  and  almost 
furious  hatred  of  those  who  oppose  it.  Who  is  the  calum- 
niator of  the  humble  Christian,  but  the  unbeliever?  Who 
exposes  meek  piety  to  sarcasm  and  ridicule,  but  the  unbe- 
liever? Who  resists  the  real  influence  of  religion,  and  strives 
to  wrest  its  consolations  from  miserable  man,  though  he  has 
nothing  to  substitute  for  it,  but  the  unbeliever?  Who  re- 
fuses to  communicate  the  healing  remedy  for  human  woe, 
which  he  cannot  be  sure  is  not  of  divine  authority,  but  the 
unbeliever?  Who  denies  the  existence  of  that  awful  preci- 
pice which  Christianity  discovers  and  warns  us  against,  but 
the  unbeliever?  Who  conceals  the  revolt  of  man  from  his 
Maker,  and  hides  from  him  the  terms  of  reconciliation,  but 
the  unbeliever? 

And  as  to  domestic  life  and  the  flow  of  the  benevolent 
affections,  there  are  two  things  which  are  quite  notorious. 
Infidelity  is  tyrannical  in  its  temper — capricious,  harsh, 
malignant.  All  experience  proves  this.  The  infidel  is  un- 
happy in  himself.  He  has  forsaken  tlie  guide  of  life;  and  is 
the  sport  of  every  paradox,  every  chimera,  every  wayward 
inclination;  the  disorder  of  his  passions  is  inconsistent  with 
genuine  benevolence.  This  is  one  point.  Then  infidelity 
is  the  ENEMY  TO  FEMALE  PURITY;  thcrc  sccms  a  peculiar 
madness  in  the  contempt  which  it  casts  on  all  the  branches 
of  virtue,  modesty,  delicacy,  and  elevation  in  the  female 
character.  And  what  the  torrents  of  misery  are  which  over- 
flow society  from  the  one  source  of  licentiousness,  let  daily 
experience  in  our  great  towns  declare. 

Now  contrast  with  all  this  dark  and  gloomy  picture  the 
benevolence  of  Christianity.  Its  view  of  human  depravity, 
is  what  the  truth  of  the  facts  proclaim — the  wrath  of  a  holy 
God  for  sin  is  a  discovery,  not  of  Revelation  only,  but  of  that 
natural  government  of  the  Almighty  which  the  unbeliever 
professes  to  admit,  and  which  speaks  in  a  voice  of  thunder 
the  guilt  of  man  and  the  Divine  displeasure  for  it.  But  the 
benevolence  of  the  sincere  Christian  appears  exuberant  in 


25G  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXH. 

the  tenderness  with  which  he  presses  those  discoveries  upon 
the  attention  of  men;  in  the  eagerness  with  which  he  pre- 
sents the  remedy  for  them;  in  the  kindness  and  affection 
with  wliich  he  administers  alleviations;  in  the  fellow-feel- 
ing which  proposes  truth  with  consideration  and  regard  to 
circumstances  and  times.  The  benevolence  of  Christianity 
appears  in  the  overflowing  benignity  with  which  all  offices 
of  mercy  arc  discharged.  It  begins  with  the  peaceful  and 
mild  affections,  by  subduing  every  angry  and  calming  every 
turbulent  passion;  it  proceeds  as  a  gentle  stream,  widening 
in  its  course.  Or  rather  it  resembles  "majestic  rivers  which 
are  poured  fronfi  an  unfailing  and  abundant  source.  Silent 
and  peaceful  in  their  outset,  they  begin  with  dispensing 
beauty  and  comfort  to  every  cottage  by  which  they  pass. 
In  their  further  progress,  they  fertilize  provinces  and  enrich 
kingdoms.  At  length  they  pour  themselves  into  the  ocean, 
where,  changing  their  name  but  not  their  nature,  they  visit 
distant  nations  and  hemispheres,  and  spread  throughout  the 
world  their  expansive  tide."'"^ 

Christianity  is,  especially,  a  retired  and  private  guest  in 
the  bosom  and  circles  of  individual  households.  Observe 
its  benevolent  working  in  those  less  communities  which 
form  public  happiness  and  prosperity  by  their  aggregation 
and  effect.  Mark  how  it  reconciles  man  with  himself  and 
with  his  God;  with  his  conscience  and  with  his  destiny; 
with  his  lofty  breathings  after  happiness  and  immortality, 
and  his  present  submission  to  pain  and  sorrow.  From  this 
inward  peace,  the  springs  of  kindness  and  goodwill  are 
opened.  The  Christian  is  kind  to  his  wife  and  children,  to 
his  family  and  neighbors;  he  is  kind  and  benignant  to  the 
vast  mass  of  mankind,  who  have  ever  been  neglected  and 
despised  by  infidelity.  What  scheme?  for  bettering  the 
condition  of  the  poor,  what  plans  oC  philanthropy,  what 
means  of  elevating,  teaching,  comforting,  and  blessing  the 
bulk  of  the  people,  has  Christianity  induced,  and  practically 
brought  to  bear,  in  every  day's  common  proceedings?  AV'ho 
visits  the  sick.'*     Who  attends  the  death-bed  of  the  depart- 

(k)  Wilbcrforce. 


LECT.  XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  257 

ing?  Who  plans  and  prosecutes  benevolent  missions  into 
Jieathen  countries?  Who  has  the  ardor  of  charity,  arising 
from  a  perception  of  the  importance  of  their  own  principles, 
and  inextinguishable  benevolence  towards  the  whole  human 
race? 

Contrast,  in  point  of  mere  benevolence,  the  lives  and  de- 
portment of  such  an  infidel  as  Rousseau,  and  such  a  Chris- 
tian as  Doddridge;  the  one  all  pride,  selfishness,  fury,  ca- 
price, rage,  gross  sensuality — casting  about  firebrands  and 
death — professing  no  rule  of  morals  but  his  feelings,  abus- 
ing the  finest  powers  to  tiie  dissemination,  not  merely  of 
objections  against  Christianity,  but  of  the  most  licentious 
and  profligate  principles:  Doddridge,  all  purity,  mildness, 
meekness  and  love,  ardent  in  his  goodwill  to  man,  the  friend 
and  counsellor  of  the  sorrowful;  regular,  calm,  consistent; 
dispensing  peace  and  truth  by  his  labors  and  writings,  liv- 
ing not  for  himself,  but  for.  the  common  good,  to  which  he 
sacrifices  his  health  and  even  life. 

Or  contrast  such  a  man  as  Volney  with  Swartz.  They 
both  visit  distant  lands,  they  are  active  and  indefatigable  in 
tlieir  pursuits,  they  acquire  celebrity;  and  communicate  re- 
spectively a  certain  impulse  to  their  widened  circles.  But 
the  one,  jaundiced  by  infidelity,  the  sport  of  passion  and 
caprice,  lost  to  all  argument  and  right  feeling,  comes  home 
to  diiTuse  the  poison  of  unbelief,  to  be  a  misery  to  himself, 
the  plague  and  disturber  of  his  country,  the  dark  calumnia- 
tor of  the  Christian  fiiith.  The  other  remains  far  from  his 
native  land  to  preach  the  peaceful  doctrine  of  the  gospel 
on  the  shores  of  India:  he  becomes  the  friend  and  brother 
of  tliosc  whom  he  had  never  seen  and  only  heard  of  as  fel- 
low-creatures; he  diffuses  blessings  for  half  a  century;  he 
ensures  the  admiration  of  the  heathen  j)rince  near  whom  he 
resides;  he  becomes  the  mediator  between  contending  tribes 
and  nations;  he  cstablisiies  a  reputation  for  purity,  integ- 
rity, disinterestedness,  meekness,  which  compel  all  around 
to  respect  and  love  him;  he  forms  churches,  he  instructs 
children,  he  disperses,  the  seeds  of  charity  and  truth;  lie  is 
33 


258  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXII. 

the  model  of  all  the  virtues  he  enjoins.'  I  do  not  stop  to 
ask  which  is  the  benevolent  individual?  I  do  not  stop  to 
ask  what  is  the  result  of  this  third  step  in  our  contrast.  I 
see  infidelity  selfish,  proud,  resentful,  the  enemy  of  the  do- 
mestic afl'ections,  the  contemner  of  female  innocence,  with- 
out motives  or  effort  for  real,  laborious,  effective  beneficence 
— I  see  Christians  overflowing  with  love,  ready  for  every 
deed  of  mercy,  with  a  heart  full  of  benevolence,  and  a  hand 
full  of  blessings.  I  see  its  eye  beam  with  charity;  and  I  read 
in  its  whole  spirit,  the  distinctive  impress  of  the  religion 
wiiich  comes  from  heaven. 

The  argument  advances.  The  futility  of  the  speculative 
objections  of  infidelity,  in  themselves,  is  still  more  clearly 
demonstrated  by  contrasting  the  men  who  frame  them,  with 
sincere  Christians,  in  the  principles  from  which  the  respec- 
tive opinions  spring,  the  moral  and  religious  conduct  with 
which  they  are  associated,  and  the  measure  of  genuine  be- 
nevolence which  they  produce. 

But  we  pass  to  the  contrast  between  the  two  classes, 

II.  As  TO  THEIR  MORE  PUBLIC  LABORS  AND  THE  WRIT- 
INGS   THEY    HAVE    SUBMITTED    TO    THE    EYE    OF    MANKIND. 

For  this  is  something  more  than  the  consideration  of  their 
conduct  generally.  Few  points  can  better  show  whether 
men  are  likely  to  have  truth  on  their  side,  as  to  such  a  sub- 
ject as  Christianity,  than  their  more  considerable  undertak- 
ings, and  especially  their  elaborate  writings  submitted  to  the 
public  eye.  Here  you  discover  what  they  are  deliberately 
aiming  at. 

Now,  what  characterises  the  chief  labors  of  the  infidel 
body?  What  is  there  of  public  spirit,  love  of  their  coun- 
try, disinterested  patriotism,  generous  self-devotion?  Re- 
ligion in  connexion  with  Christianity,  and  all  that  bears 
upon  it,  they  follow  with  deep-rooted  contempt;  but  what 
do  they  undertake  for  promoting  the  more  abstract  and  uni- 
versal obligations  of  religion,  as  distingui.^hed  from  the  ex- 
press commands  and  the  peculiar  revelations  of  the  gospel? 

(1)  See  Reports  of  East  India  Mission,  published  by  Society  for  promoting  Chris- 
tian Knowledge — and  Memoirs  ofSwartz. — Rousseau's  and  Volney's  lives  are  as  no- 
torious as  their  names. 


LECT.    XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  259 

Where  are  the  proofs  of  labor  and  diligence  to  inculcate 
moral  and  religious  principles  as  the  foundation  of  personal 
and  social  happiness?  Where  are  the  efforts  to  emancipate 
men,  by  prudent  and  self-denying  labors,  from  ignorance, 
injustice,  oppression,  slavery?  Where  are  the  patient  en- 
deavors, resting  on  the  calm  conviction  of  a  righteous  cause, 
and  nourished  by  zeal  in  a  good  project,  which  bear  them 
over  obstacles,  and  carry  them  on  to  a  distant  but  well-earn- 
ed success? 

There  are  schemes,  indeed,  formed  by  infidelity — but 
schemes  for  demoralizing  their  fellow  creatures;  there  are 
attempts — but  attempts  at  revolution,  anarchy,  the  subver- 
sion of  all  constituted  authority;  there  are  projects — but 
projects  to  sow  the  seeds  of  discontent,  division,  domestic 
and  social  misery;  there  are  leaders — but  leaders  in  immo- 
rality, stubbornness,  vice,  rebellion;  there  are  examples — 
but  examples  of  hypocrisy,  flattery,  chicane,  the  desertion 
of  undertakings  when  they  involve  expense  and  trouble,  a 
fawning  on  the  great,  views  of  private  ambition  and  aggran- 
dizement. 

But  as  to  virtuous  cflbrt  for  the  good  of  mankind,  there 
is  a  total  blank,  generally  speaking.  No  doubt,  many  in- 
dividuals may  have  promoted  incidentally  the  welfare  of 
mankind;  but  as  to  systematic,  self-devoted  labors,  under- 
taken with  firmness  and  pursued  from  principle,  for  the  glory 
of  God,  and  the  good  of  men,  infidelity  does  not  even  pre- 
tend to  them. 

And  then,  as  to  their  writings,  we  yield  them  all  they 
demand,  on  the  score  of  wit,  talent,  diligence,  elegance  of 
style — but  we  ask,  what  are  the  moral  characteristics  of 
their  works?  What  the  object  in  view?  What  the  proba- 
bility that  their  objections  to  Christianity  were  the  dictates 
of  candid  inquiry  and  honest  search  after  truth?  What  the 
indications  of  moral  and  religious  feeling,  knowledge  of  the 
subject  of  Christianity,  freedom  from  disqualifying  prej- 
udice? 

Take  the  infidel  writings  in  our  own  country  at  the  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  or  tliosc  of  the  last  age  on  the 
continent.      Examine  the  works  of  Chubb   or  Tindal,  of 


2G0  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXII. 

Hobbs  or  Woolston,  of  Bolinfibroke  or  Collins.  See  what 
Voltaire,  in  his  voluminous  productions,  was  aiming  at.  Mark 
the  bearings  of  the  works  of  Diderot,  D'Alembert,  Rousseau, 
and  the  other  French  infidels.  Come  down  to  present  times 
— what  arc  the  writings  of  Hume,  Gibbon,  Byron,  Shelley, 
Paine,  and  Carlile,  in  our  own  country.'' 

EfiOTisM  is  the  first  characteristic  of  their  writings  as  a 
body.  They  have  evidently  the  highest  opinion  of  their 
own  consequence — self  stands  forwards  in  the  most  disgust- 
ing prominence. 

Vanity  and  the  pursuit  of  personal  fame  and  popularity 
next  show  themselves;  principles  which  totally  corrupt  any 
search  after  truth,  and  destroy  the  just  perception  of  any 
object  which  chances  to  be  displeasing. 

Then  comes  a  malignity  against  Christianity,  as  we 
observed  in  our  last  Lecture  as  well  as  the  present,  entirely 
contrary  to  a  calm  conviction  of  mind  and  a  legitimate  at- 
tempt to  overthrow  and  oppose  error. 

A  disregard  to  truth  and  the  sanctity  of  an  oath 
must  next  be  noticed.  Voltaire  practised  the  grossest  and 
most  daring  falsehood  and  perjury,  without  scruple;  disa- 
vowing his  irreligious  works  with  the  solemnity  of  an  oath; 
and  arguing,  from  imperfect  lines  in  bis  poetical  productions, 
that  he  could  not  be  their  author. 

A  spirit  of  BLASPHEMY  and  contempt  of  God  and  his  will, 
is  also  most  apparent;  not  merely  a  neglect  of  Christianity, 
but  a  scorn  of  all  religion,  a  dishonor  studiously  put  on  the 
majesty  and  dominion  of  the  great  God  of  heaven  and 
earth. 

A  diligent  aim  at  confounding  virtue  and  vice,  level- 
ling the  demarcations  of  morality,  laughing  at  the  usual  re- 
serves and  decencies  of  life,  is  also  most  manifest.  The 
more  incongruous  the  union,  in  their  feigned  personages,  of 
extraordinary  tenderness  of  heart,  of  generosity  and  self- 
devotion  to  the  good  of  others,  with  the  basest  vices  and  the 
most  daring  outrages  upon  decency  and  virtue,  the  better 
they  are  pleased."' 

(m)  What  is  the  aim  of  lord  Bjron's  poems— till  \vc  come  to  his  flagitious  and  in- 
fidel ciTusions.  just  before  his  fearful  end— but  this?     What  are  talents,  wit,  imagina- 


LECT.    XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  261 

In  writings  composed  of  such  materials,  who  would  be 
surprised  to  see,  what  is  the  real  fact,  objections  against 
Christianity,  or  rather  a  profligate  persecution  of  every  per- 
son and  thing  connected  with  it? 

But  there  are  three  distinct  charges  which  may  be  made 
out  ajrainst  the  books  of  infidels,  whether  in  our  own  coun- 
try  or  on  the  c-^ntinent.  We  charge  them  with  distorting 
KNOWN  FACTS,  aud  misquotiug  and  altering  the  meaning  of 
the  authors  whom  they  cite.  Neither  Hume,  nor  Gibbon, 
nor  Voltaire,  is  trustworthy,  on  any  matter  touching  upon 
Christianity.  Habitually  sceptical  and  hard  of  belief  in  the 
examination  of  things  purely  human,  they  cease  to  be  so,  the 
moment  the  Christian  cause  lies  open  to   misrepresentation. 

The  corruption  of  the  texts  of  books,  the  mis-statement 
of  matters  of  fact,  the  grossest  unfairness  in  citations  are 
accounted  lawful  by  them  in  their  contest  with  religion. 

We  charge  them  further  with  insidiously  cokkupting 
THE  LITERATURE  of  their  day,  and  infusing  into  works  of  a 
scientific  description,  those  doubts  and  objections  which 
they  had  not  the  manliness  to  avow.  We  charge  them  with 
prosecuting  a  covert  and  dishonest  warfare.  We  charge 
them  with  treachery  to  the  best  interests  of  truth  and  sincer- 
ity. We  say  that  the  artifices  of  Hume  and  Gibbon  in  this 
country,  and  of  the  Encyclopoedists  in  an  adjoining  one,  are 
disgraceful  to  men  professing  to  be  under  the  government 
of  Almighty  God,  and  amenable  to  him  for  their  actions. 

We  charge  them,  lastly,  with  a  measure  of  impurity  and 
LICENTIOUSNESS  wliicli  lias  uo  parallel,  except  in  the  grossest 
productions  of  heathen  Greece  and  Rome.  We  charge 
them  with  pursuing  this  obscure  and  disgusting  purpose 
with  an  art  and  a  pertinacity,  which  indicates  the  total  disso- 
lution of  moral  principle  and  a  heart  entirely  corrupted  by 
vice  and  sensuality. 

lion,  conversational  powers,  exertions  to  proinole  civil  liberty,  poetical  fame — when 
all  have  been  thus  desecrated  to  the  dishonor  of  God  and  ol  the  Saviour  of  mankind; 
and  ended  in  ruin  to  the  possessor,  anfl  incalculable  mischief  (o  his  fellow-creatures? 
What  must  be  the  eflecl  of  publishing  his  [joisonous,  blasphemous,  and  polluting  cor- 
respondence? 


262  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXII. 

In  short,  we  demand  one  thing.  Where  is  the  infidel 
publication  which  is  cahn,  well-reasoned,  placed  on  fair 
grounds  of  historical  fact,  proposed  with  the  modesty  and  fear 
which  the  awful  resf)onsibility  involved  demands?  Where 
is  the  manly,  upright,  serious  treatise,  bearing  the  marks  of 
a  sincere,  a  devout,  and  an  unprejudiced  inquirer?  I  know 
not  one. 

The  only  relief  to  the  benevolent  mind,  amidst  such  a 
mass  of  moral  evil,  is  to  turn  to  the  useful  labors  and  meri- 
torious and  able  writings  of  sincere  Christians.  What  do 
they  propose  to  themselves?  What  public  undertakings  do 
they  engage  in?  What  kind  of  efforts  do  they  sustain  for 
the  mere  good  of  others,  and  in  obedience  to  their  Saviour's 
commands?  What  probability  is  there,  that  they  have  truth 
on  their  side  in  what  they  do?  These  are  the  questions  we 
propose. 

I  appeal  to  every  one  competent  to  form  a  judgment.  I 
say,  every  true,  spiritual  Christian  is  the  cheerful  servant  of 
his  fellow-creatures.  I  say,  he  not  only  sustains  the  princi- 
ples of  religion  and  morals;  that  he  not  only  performs  the 
ordinary  obligations  resulting  from  them;  that  he  not  only 
is  animated  with  the  purest  spirit  of  benevolence;  but  that 
his  life  is  a  life  of  labor  for  the  good  of  others:  he  has  a  prin- 
ciple of  effort  and  active  duty  implanted  in  his  breast,  which 
shrinks  from  no  difficulties,  refuses  no  exertion,  yields  to  no 
discouragements  in  a  good  cause.  In  what  department  of 
human  life,  is  not  the  sincere  Christian  foremost,  prompt, 
persevering,  in  planning  and  executing  schemes  of  benefi- 
cence and  charity? 

Take  the  ministers  of  religion,  those  who  are  real  Chris- 
tians in  heart,  (for  we  own  no  others,)  what,  I  ask,  has  been 
their  course  of  effort  in  every  age  since  the  propagation  of 
Christianity?  What  their  inextinguishable  zeal  for  the  pre- 
sent and  future  welfare  of  mankind?  What  their  laborious 
and  ceaseless  exertions? 

Consider  the  different  classes  of  Christians.  Take  the 
missionary  who,  like  Swarlz,  to  whom  we  before  referred, 
or  Zeigenbald,  or  Brainerd,  or  Eliot,  or  Gericke,  or  Clau- 


LECT.  XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  263 

dius  Buchanan,  or  Martyn,  have  in  silent  and  unobserved 
and  distant  labors,  spent  an  useful  and  honorable  life. 
^  Observe  the  sincere  Christians  who  are  engaged  in  vari- 
ous professions,  or  occupied  in  commercial  pursuits — what 
are  the  extensive  schemes  which  they  form  to  make 
their  secular  subserve  their  religious  duties — to  make  their 
profession  or  their  commerce  a  channel  of  communicating 
spiritual  blessings? 

Scrutinize  again  the  individual  believer  in  the  more  re- 
tired orders  of  Christian  society — the  female  sex,  the  various 
descriptions  of  domestic  servants,  in  their  private,  but 
assiduous  diligence,  beyond  and  beside  their  immediate 
duties,  for  promoting  the  glory  of  God  and  the  happiness 
of  mankind.  The  female  character,  elevated  and  refined 
by  Ciiristianity,  is  not  only  preserved  from  debasement  by 
the  purity  of  the  Christian  precepts,  but  is  animated  to 
patient  and  humble,  though  retired,  efforts  to  advance  the 
highest  interests  of  humanity. 

Christianity  is  all  effort -and  activity  for  tlie  good  of  others. 
The  believer  loves  his  neighbor  as  himself. 

And  why  should  I  contrast  the  writings  of  the  true  fol- 
lowers of  Christianity,  with  the  disgusting  picture  which 
truth  has  compelled  me  to  draw  of  the  infidel  publications.^' 
Why  sliould  I  oppose  the  humility  of  the  Christian  writer, 
with  the  egotism  of  the  infidel.'*  Why  contrast  his  self- 
renunciation  and  conscious  unworthiness  and  pursuit  of 
the  sole  glory  of  his  God  and  Saviour,  with  the  vanity 
and  love  of  fame  of  the  infidel.''  Why  should  I  set  off  his 
benignity  and  kindness  and  openness  to  conviction, 
AND  freedom  fhom  personar  FEELINGS,  with  thc  malignity 
and  rancor  of  the  unbeliever.^  What  avails  my  bringing 
into  contrast  the  regard  to  truth,  the  plain  research  for  mat- 
ters of  fact,  the  piety  and  awe  at  the  name  of  God  and 
reverence  of  his  majesty,  which  pervade  the  Christian 
writings,  with  tlic  false  and  impious'  and  contemptuous 
spirit  of  infidels.?  Why  should  I  fatigue  you  by  detailing 
the  strong  moral  distinctions  between  virtue  and  vice,  in  all 
their  ramifications,  which  mark  the  Christian  treatises,  and 
the  pernicious  confusion  of  right  and  wrong  which  prevails 


264  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXII. 

in  the  infidel?  No;  I  will  not  pursue  the  contrast,  I  will  not 
darken  tlie  charges  of  dishonest  quotation,  insidious  and 
cowardly  methods  of  attack,  and  impurity  of  description 
and  lannuajfe,  brou<£ht  so  justly  against  infidelity,  by  dwell- 
in<T  in  this  r)lace  on  the  historical  testimonies  and  uncontro- 
verted  facts  on  which  the  Christian  cause  rests;  on  the  open, 
manly,  uncompromising  fortitude  which  it  displays;  and  the 
unsullied  purity  and  delicacy  of  all  its  precepts  and  tenden- 
cies.    All  these  things  arc  too  well  known. 

But  I  ask  how  is  it  that  Christian  waiters  are  so  full,  so 
manly,  so  laborious  in  the  positive  exhibition  of  the  doc- 
trines and  precepts  of  their  religion,  when  nothing  of  the 
sort  can  be  shown  in  the  writings  of  infidels  as  to  the  system 
of  natural  duty  which  they  profess  to  defend?  Where  are 
the  writings,  on  the  unbeliever's  part,  which  answer  to  our 
Christian  fathers,  to  our  commentators,  to  our  ecclesiastical 
histories,  to  our  moral  essays,  to  our  volumes  of  sermons, 
to  our  bodies  of  divinity?  Where  are  any  writers,  on  their 
professed  scheme  of  religion,  which  answer  to  our  Cyprian, 
our  Chrysostom,  our  St.  Austin,  our  Bernard?  Where  to 
our  Hooker,  our  Jewel,  our  Luther,  our  Melancthon,  our 
Pascal,  our  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  our  Bishop  Pearson,  our  Bax- 
ter, our  Archbishop  Leighton,  our  Bishop  Hall,  our  Dod- 
dridge? A  death-like  silence  prevails.  I  can  find  no  one 
Christian  book  that  does  not  partake  of  the  essential  moral 
elements  of  iruth,  purity,  and  sincerity;  and  no  one  infidel 
writing  that  docs.  No.  It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  sum 
up  this  second  head.  I  content  myself  with  appealing  to 
every  conscience,  whether  our  argument  does  not  strengthen 
as  we  proceed — whether,  in  point  of  public  labor  and 
writings,  Christianity  does  not  bear  as  prominently  the  seal 
of  truth  and  God  and  heaven  upoivit,  as  infidelity  does  that 
of  falsehood  and  of  the  rebellious  spirits  of  darkness?  I 
ask,  whether,  after  having  shown  the  futility  of  the  objec- 
tions of  infidelity  in  themselves,  we  do  not  seem  to  have 
completed  the  overthrow,  by  exhibiting  the  deliberate  aim 
of  those  who  framed  them?  I  ask,  whether  objections  are 
worth  considering  which  must  be  culled   out  from  the  dis- 


LECT.    XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CIIRISTIAMTY.  265 

honesty,  e<iotism,  malignity,  and    moral    pollution,  of   the 
works  in  which  they  are  buried? 

But  an  additional  fact  will  raise  tliis  whole  branch  of 
proof  to  a  yet  higher  point.  In  numerous  cases,  all  these 
excellencies  of  the  Christian  character  have  been  the  result 

of     a     DKCiOED      CONVERSION      FROM      THE      VERY      INFIDELITY 

which  lies  on  the  other  side  of  our  contrast.  Multitudes  of 
these  Christians,  whose  principles,  moral  conduct,  benevo- 
lence, and  useful  writings  we  have  been  considering,  were 
once  enemies  of  Christianity,  vain,  perverse,  ai^rogant,  de- 
based, profligate,;  but  they  were  brought  to  consideration — 
they  were  led  to  examine,  (as  I  have  mentioned  in  the  case 
of  Mr.  Boyle,)  the  qgestion  of  ^Christianity  with  calmness. 
The  result  was  an  entire  change  from  the  degradation  and 
vices  of  infidelity,  to  the  elevation  and  purity  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  .  Tiiey  proclaim  the,  alteration.  They  confess 
with  grief  the  motives  which  dictated  their  former  rebellion; 
they  distinctly  avow  the  source  of  their  errors  and  guilt; 
they  open  to  us  the  real  cause  of  the  objections  of  infidelity. 
Thus  the  camp  of  the  enemy  betrays  itself.  The  Christian 
advocate,  like  Augustine  in  the  fourth  century,  is  brought 
out  from  the  midst  of  its  foes;  and  we  have  the  singular 
advantage  of  knowing  the  ground  on  which  infidels,  con- 
tinuing such,  stand,  by  the  ground  on  which  the  Christian 
convert  confesses  he  once  stood  himself. 

Infidelity  has  nothing  to  show  of  a  kind  similar  to  this. 
Where  are  her  converts  from  among  devout  and  serious 
Christians?  Where  are  those  who  confess  the  guilt  of  be- 
lieving the  revelation  of  the'Bible?  Where  are  the  regrets 
and  penitence  for  having  obeyed  the  gospel?  All  isa  blank. 
Infidelity  and  her  objections,  are  disobkdience:  faith,  with 
her  solid  fruits,  is  OREDifcNCE  to  the  great  God  and  Father 
of  all. 

But  I  hasten  to  the  last  division  of  our  contrast. 

III.    Their  deaths    and  ruEPARATioN  for    an  eternal 

STATE    OF    BEING. 

And  here  the  interval  widens:  the  gloom  deepens  even  to 
darkness  on  the  one  side,  whilst  the  light  breaks  forth  into 
splendor  on  the  other.     Whatever  contrast  there  may  be 
31 


266  I.ECTURKS    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXll. 

between  the  two  classes,  as  to  their  principles,  their  general 
coiuluct,  their  benevolence,  their  public  labors  and  writings, 
this  contrast  is  immeasurably  more  awful  as  we  view  them 
as  to  their  approach  toward  death,  and  their  preparation 
for  eternity. 

What,  then,  is  the  death-bed  of  the  unbeliever?  What  is 
he  ensajied  in  at  this  solemn  season?  How  does  his  con- 
science  respond  to  the  inquiry,  "Have  I  been  seeking  truth?" 
Alas!  the  thick  obscurity  of  the  scene  too  surely  portends 
what  is  beyond!  For  of  whatever  particular  description  be 
his  death,  it  gives  a  loud  and  clear  testimony  against  the 
objections  he  has  been  relying  on — they  condemn,  they 
desert,  they  betray  him  at  last. 

Whether  we  look  to  the  confessions  and  regret  of  some 
infidels  in  the  article  of  death — the  obduracy  and  insensibil- 
ity of  others — the  pride  and  presumption  of  a  third  class — 
the  carelessness  and  levity  which  mark  a  fourth — the  rage 
and  despair  by  which  others  are  rendered  awfully  conspicu- 
ous; or  the  self-destruction  by  which  so  great  a  number  fall; 
whatever  cases  we  select  and  contrast  with  the  circumstan- 
ces of  the  dying  Christian — all,  all  proclaim  that  infidelity 
is  rebellion  against  the  God  of  heaven,  and  that  her  objec- 
tions are  the  mere  foaming  and  boiling  over  of  man's  inbred 
corruptions;  whilst  truth  and  holiness  and  the  attestations  of 
God,  in  his  moral  government,  are  on  the  side  of  Christianity. 

1.  Notice  the  rkgret  and  confessions  of  the  awakened 
infidel  on  his  death-bed.  I  hear  Burnet's  convert"  acknowl- 
edge that  the  real  source  and  spring  of  his  unbelief,  was 
a  space  of  five  years  spent  in  profligacy — that  his  vices  had 
led  him  to  seek  a  miserable  refuge  in  infidelity  and  pre- 
sumption. I  hear  many  of  the  culprits,  who  have  been 
doomed  to  expiate  their  crimes  against  society  by  an  igno- 
minious death,  own  and  lament  their  infidel  principles,  as 
the  first  cause  of  the  deeds  for  which  they  suHered."     What 

(n)  Lord  Rodicstcr. 

(o)  I  have  in  my  possession  a  Idler  from  the  chaplain,  wiio  attonilcd  ilie  conspira- 
tors against  the  lives  of  his  Majesty's  ministers,  in  ISOD,  i<no\vn  by  the  name  of  the 
Cato-strcctconspiralors,vvhicli  infonncd  nic  that  all  the  leading  criminals  were  avow- 
ed infidels. 


LECT.    XXir.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  267 

do  these  confessions  teach  me?  Where  is  the  Christian 
that  ever  lamented  on  a  dying  bed  liis  belief  in  the  revela- 
tion of  the  Gospel?  I  ask  for  a  single  example  of  any 
sincere  believer  in  Revelation,  being  confused  and  ashamed 
at  last  for  his  faith.  Where  is  the  instance?  I  demand 
only  one,  if  it  exists,  that  at  the  least  I  may  weigh  the  fact 
against  the  numerous, — the  innumerable  instances  I  was 
going  to  say — of  confession,  and  shame,  and  sorrow,  which 
the  victims  of  infidelity  furnish.  Multitudes  of  Christians 
liave  regretted  that  they  have  not  more  fully  obeyed  their 
religion,  but  not  one  that  he  had  reposed  his  trust  in  it. 

2.  But  take  the  oBDru.vTE  and  insensible  class  of  death- 
bed scenes.  I  approach  the  dying  infidel,  occupied  to  the 
last  instant  with  secular  concerns,  calculating  on  the  time 
which  remains  for  him,  without  a  tliought  or  reference  to 
eternity;  without  a  reflection  on  the  past,  or  a  prayer  for 
the  future;  utterly  callous  to  every  thing  that  regards  him 
as  an  immortal  and  accountable  creature;  repelling  the 
voice  and  invitations  of  the  minister  of  religion.  What 
does  all  this  proclaim?  What  is  there  here  of  a  right  state 
of  heart?  Is  insensibility  to  the  greatest  of  all  concerns 
reasonable  or  becoming  in  man? 

Contrast. with  this  insensibility  the  dying  couch  of  the 
Christian.  He  perceives  death  to  approach;  he  prepares 
for  the  event;  he  examines  his  heart  and  life;  he  calls  in  the 
minister  of  grace;  he  confesses  every  past  sin;  he  forgives 
every  injury;  he  composes  himself  to  the  nearer  struggle 
with  the  great  foe;  he  trusts  to  the  mercy  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ;  he  commends  his  children,  his  servants,  to  the  care 
of  a  kind  and  powerful  heavenly  Father;  he  dies  in  peace. 
Nature,  conscience,  the  slightest  moral  feeling,  compel  one 
to  declare  that  this  man  is  right — and  the  other  deceived 
and  ruined.  It  is  impossible  to  look  on  the  one  without 
liorror,  or  on  the  other  without  an  assurance  of  his  future 
happiness  and  joy. 

3.  But  contrast  the  pride  and  pkesumption  of  other 
infidels  at  the  approach  of  death,  with  the  humility  and 
prostration  of  heart  which  meekly  adorn  the  departing 
Christian.  I  see  Gibbon,  full  of  vanity  to  the  last  dregs  of 
life,  calculating,  only  twenty  hours  before  its  close,  on  the 


268  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXII. 

probability  of  a  continued  existence  for  fifteen  years;  con- 
fessing, that  as  life  wore  away,  the  failnre  of  hope  gave  "a 
browner  lint  to  the  prospects  of  man;"  and  meeting  the 
Almiglity,  whom  he  had  been  by  his  laborious  and  artful 
infidelity  and  licentiousness,  daring  to  his  face,  with  a 
treacherous  confidence.  What,  what  does  such  a  scene 
teach  one?  Or,  again,  when  I  hear  the  last  presumptuous 
accents  of  Rousseau,  claiming  the  favor  of  his  Creator,  and 
declaring  that  he  returned  him  his  soul  pure  and  immacu- 
late as  he  had  received  it,  what  does  it  impress  upon  the 
attentive  mind? 

Let  the  humility  of  the  Christian's  death-bed  give  the 
proper  reply.  I  see  the  almost  unequalled  Pascal,after  a 
life  of  eminent  sanctity,  and  the  coinposition  of  works  which 
have  long  been  the  admiration  of  Christendom,  approaching 
his  end.  During  his  malady,  charity  and  patience  were  the 
conspicuous  features  of  his  mind.  His  humility  was  such, 
that  he  desired  to  have  a  poor  sick  person  brought  into  his 
chamber,  and  receive  the  same  attentions  with  himself. 
Being  interrogated  by  the  minister  of  religion  as  to  his  faith, 
before  he  received  the  sacrament,  he  said,  "Yes,  sir;  I  be- 
lieve all  that  with  all  rny  heart."  He  then  said,  "May  God 
never  leave  me;"  which  were  his  last  words,  e.\ce|)t  short 
thanksgivings,  before  he  fell  gently  asleep,  as  it  were,  in  his 
Saviour's  arms. 

4.  Come  with  me  to  another  scene.  Let  me  show  you  the 
TKiFLiNG  AND  CARELESS  infidel,  in  contrast  with  the  serious 
and  solemn  Christian  in  their  last  hours;  ahd-  l&t  conscience 
say  which  has  followed  truth.  Hume  rS  near  his  end.  Levity 
and  satire  occupy  his.  discourse.  He  jokes  about  Lucian, 
and  Charon,  and  the  crazy  boat,  and  the  fabled  Styx;  he 
frames  various  reasons,  which  he  might  assign  for  delaying 
his  transmission.  Trifling  dissipation,  even  games  at  whist, 
fill  the  intervals.  Tiie  retouching  of  his  infidel  writings  is 
his  employmcr^t.  He  finishes  on  his  death  bed, —  I  relate 
it  with  horror, — his  Essay  on  Suicide,  in  which  he  encour- 
ages a  profane  and  irreligious  age,  to  this  last  misera- 
ble act  of  presumption  and  despair.  In  this  frame  he 
dies.  What  an  over-acted  part!  What  a  frightful  uncon- 
cern!     What  an    unnatural  contempt  of  that  dissolution: 


LECT.    XXII.]        EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  269 

of  tlie  mortal  frame,  which  sin  has  induced,  and  whicli 
carries  man  before  the  tribunal  of  God!  Is  this  the  hero  of 
your  natural  religion?  Is  this  the  man,  whose  cold-blooded 
scepticism  waS' only  equalled  by  the  disgusting  licentious- 
ness of  his  moral  code;  who  overturns  all  testimony  with 
one  hand,  and  all  virtue  with  the  other?  Yes,  the  brand  of 
the  Almighty  did  not  appear  more  visible  in  the  judicial  ob- 
duracy of  Pharaoh,  than  in  the  infidel  being  given  up  to 
the  levity  of  such  a  death-bed. 

How  opposite  to  this  the  seriousness  of  the  judicious 
Hooker;  a  man  superior  to  Hume  in  all  the  powers  of  the 
mind,  as  well  as  in  all  the  moral  and  religious  endowments 
of  the  heart.  His  last  words  were,  "I  have  lived  to  see  this 
world  is  made  up  of  petturbation,  and  I  have  been  long 
preparing  to  leave  it,  and  have  been  gathering  comfort  for 
the  dreadful  hour  of  making  up  my  account  with  God,  which 
I  nov/  apprehend  to  be  near:  and  though  I  have,  by  his 
grace,  loved  him  in  my  youth,  and  feared  him  in  mine  age, 
and  labored  to  have  a  conscience  void  of  offence  to  him, 
and  to  ail  men;  yet,  if  thou.  Lord,  be  extreme  to  mark  what 
I  have  done  amiss,  who  can  abide  it?  And  therefore,  where 
I  have  failed,  Lord,  show  mercy  to  me;  for  I  plead  not  my 
righteousness,  but  the  forgiveness  of  my  unrighteousness, 
for  his  merits,  who  died  to  purchase  a  pardon  for  penitent 
sinners." 

' '  5,  But  I  must  go  on  to  present  to  you,  painful  as  is  the 
task,  the  rage  and  despaiu  with  which  some  infidels  are 
visited  in  their  death;  and  contrast  it  with  the  joy  and  tri- 
umph which  frequently  mark   that  of  the  faithful  Christian. 

In  his  second  part  of  the  "Ag«  of  Reason,"  Paine  had 
boasted  that  a  fever  which  he  and  tiiose  about  him  expect- 
ed to  prove  mortal,  made  him  remember,  with  renewed  sat- 
isfaction, that  he  had  written  the  former  part  of  that  work, 
and  he  "knew  therefore,"  he  said,  "by  experience,  the  con- 
scientious trial  of  [lis  own  principles."  But  when  he  actu- 
ally approached  the  grave,  he  began  to  betray  those  terrors 
whicii  before  he  had  laughed  at.  Often,  for  a  long  ti/ne  to- 
gether, he  exclaimed,  "O  Lord,  help  me!  O  Christ,  help 
me!"     As  his  illness  increased,  he  would  not  be  left  alone, 


270  LKCTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXII. 

night  nor  day;  nor  would  he  suffer  his  attendant  out  of  his 
sight.  His  physician  pressed  him  to  confess  his  guilt  and 
errors,  but  he  sullenly  refused,  in  a  way  which  convinced 
Dr.  Manly,  that  if  he  had  not  been  an  infidel  so  completely 
pledged  to  the  world,  he  would  publicly  have  revoked  and 
renounced  his  infidelity.  He  declared  on  one  occasion, 
"that  if  ever  the  devil  had  had  an  agent  upon  earth,  he  had 
been  one."  When  his  infidel  companions  said,  You  have 
lived  like  a  man — we  hope  you  will  die  like  one;  he  observed 
to  one  near  him,  "You  see,  sir,  what  miserable  comforters  I 
have."  The  woman  whom  he  had  seduced  from  her  hus- 
band, lamented  to  her  neighbors,  "For  this  man  I  have  given 
up  my  family  and  my  friends,  my  property  and  my  religion. 
Judge,  then,  of  my  distress,  when  he  tells  me,  that  the  prin- 
ciples he  has  taught  me,  will  not  bear  me  out." 

And  what  were  the  last  days  of  Voltaire?  Hypocrisy  the 
most  debasing,  and  terrors  the  most  frightful,  united  to  ren- 
der them  a  fearful  lesson  of  what  infidelity  may  bring  a  man 
to  at  last.  When  he  thought  himself  in  danger  of  death, 
he  sent  for  the  Abbe  Gaulhier,  crying  out,  "I  do  not  wish 
to  have  my  body  cast  into  the  common  sewer."  He  then 
scrupled  not  to  declare,  that  "he  wished  to  die  in  the  Catho- 
lic religion,  in  which  he  was  born,  and  that  he  asked  pardon 
of  God  and  the  church  for  the  offences  that  he  might  have 
committed  against  them."  As  death  approached,  his  ter- 
rors overcame  him.  His  friends  never  came  near  him,  but 
to  witness  their  own  shame.  He  said  to  them,  "Sirs,  it  is 
you  who  have  brought  me  to  my  present  state;  begone — I 
could  have  done  without  you  all."  He  was  alternately  sup- 
plicating and  blaspheming  God,  and  crying  out,  "O  Christ! 
O  Jesus  Christ!"P  M.  Tronchin,  struck  with  horror,  retired, 
confessing,  the  death-bed  of  the  impious  man  was  awful 
indeed.  The  Marshal  Richlieu  flew  from  the  bed-side, 
declaring  the  sight  too  terrible  to  be  sustained.  And  the 
nurse  who  attended  him,  being  many  years  afterwards 
requested  to  wait  on  a  sick  Protestant  gentleman,  refused, 

(p)  M.  Auger  passes  over  his  deadi-bed  scene,  hy  confessing  generally,  that  much 
obscurity  rests  upon  it — a  pretty'  clear  intimation  of  what  he  suspected  to  be  the  real 
truth. 


LKCT.  XXII.J  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  271 

till  she  was  assured  he  was  not  a  philosopher;  declaring,  if 
he  were,  she  would  on  no  account  incur  the  danger  of  wit- 
nessing such  a  scene  as  she  had  been  compelled  to  do  at 
the  death  of  M.  Voltaire.i 

And  now,  turn  your  eye  to  yonder  crowd;  it  surrounds 
the  Christian  martyr;  approach — hear  the  dying  Poly- 
carp  rejoicing  in  his  Saviour,  when  cast  to  the  lions.  Or 
see  the  female  martyr  Blandina,  in  the  next  age,  triumphing 
by  faith,  even  under  the  most  brutal  persecution.  Or  view 
the  noble  leaders  of  the  English  Reformation,  Ridley  and 
Latimer.  They  meet  at  the  stake — they  encourage  each 
other  to  suffer  with  pleasure.  "Be  of  good  heart,  brother," 
says  Ridley  to  his  companion,  "for  God  will  either  assuage 
the  fury  of  the  flame,  or  else  strengthen  us  to  abide  it."  He 
then  calmly  addresses  his  prayers  to  the  Almighty,  "O 
heavenly  Father,  I  give  unto  Thee  most  hearty  thanks,  for 
that  thou  hast  called  me  to  be  a  professor  of  Thee,  even  unto 
death.  I  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord  God,  take  mercy  on  this 
realm  of  England,  and  deliver  the  same  from  all  her  ene- 
mies." The  fire  being  kindled,  he  cried  out,  "Into  thy 
hand,  O  Lord,  I  commend  my  spirit;  Lord,  receive  my 
spirit" — and  Latimer,  in  similar  words,  "O  Father  of  heaven, 
receive  my  soul!" 

((])  This  simple  incident  is  most  touching'  and  important. — It  is  nature  itself. — I  re- 
ceived the  account  from  the  son  of  the  gentleman  to  whose  dying  bed  the  woman  was 
invite^,  by  a  letter  now  in  my  possession. 

Of  the  posthumous  mischief  efleclcd  by  Voltaire,  this  calculation  may  give  some 
idea.  His  death  took  place  in  1778.  Between  the  years  1817  anil  1824,  the  Paris  editions 
of  his  works  amounted  to  1,  417,000  volumes.  Supposing  the  same  number  to  have 
been  circulated  in  the  six  years  that  have  passed  since  1824;  and  twice  the  number 
in  the  forty  preceding,  we  have  a  total  of  nearly  si.x  millions  of  vokunes  issued  from 
the  Paris  press  only;  and  every  volume  teeming  widi  errors,  misrepresenlaiions,  ob- 
jections against  Christianity,  and  the  grossest  impurities.  What  must  be  liie  state  of 
society  on  the  Continent,  to  receive  siich  a  mass  of  evil — and  what  the  account  to 
be  rendered  at  the  bar  of  God  by  the  author  of  it  all '. 

The  Lectures  of  Mr.  Boyle,  which  have  furnished,  during  more  than  a  century',  the 
ablest  defences  of  Christianity — the  works  of  Luther — the  thoughts  of  Pascal— the 
writings  of  Hooker— the  innumerable  Christian  books  silently  dilTuscd  during  ages, 
and  scattering  knowledge  and  piety  in  the  widest  manner,  outweigh,  no  doubt,  the/ 
mischiefs  of  these  infidel  works;  without  lessening  our  regret  or  detestation  at  their 
unparalleled  wickedness. 


272  LECTUHES    ON    THE  [LECT.     XXII. 

Such  is  Christianity  in  martyrdom.  But  take  a  dift'erent 
scene.  Enter  the  silent  chamber  of  sickness,  and  hear 
the  accents  of  triumph  and  joy  fall  from  the  Christian's  lips. 
Oberlin,  the  devout  and  benevolent  pastor  of  the  Ban  de  la 
Roche,  sinks  imperceptibly  into  the  arms  of  death.  For 
nearly  sixty  .years,  he  had  been  the  friend  of  all  his  parish- 
ioners, the  helper  of  the  poor,  the  minister  of  improvements, 
the  founder  of  public  edifices,  the  author  of  a  more  culti- 
vated-language, the  discoverer  of  infant  schools,  the  noble 
and  disinterested  servant  of  God  his  Saviour. "■  He  had 
been,  not  only  the  minister,  and  evangelist,  but  the  school- 
master,'farmer,  mechanic,  and  physician  of  his  people.  As 
death  approached,  he  gave  himself  to  prayer  for  himself  and 
his  parishioners,  specifying  the  particular  names  of  each. 
He  longed  for  tlie  joyful  period  when,  released  from  his  nar- 
row prison-house  of  clay,  he  might  enter  upon  that  happi- 
ness, which  he  humbly  expected  through  the  merits  of  the 
Son  of  God.  His  last  hours  come  on.  He  exclaims,  as 
his  strength  permits,  "Lord  Jesus,  take  me  speedily!  Never- 
theless, thy  will  be  done!"  Tenderly  embracing  a  young 
Christian  minister,  he  said,  "The  Lord  bless  you,  and  all 
who  are  dear  to  you!  may  he  be  with  you  day  and  night!" 
As  his  spirit  was  departing,  he  joined  his  hands,  raised  his 
eyes  towards  heaven,  his  couatenunce  beaming  with  faith, 
joy,  and  love.^ 

6.  And  how  can  I  proceed  to  set  before  you,  as  I  must, 
THE  SUICIDAL  HOKHORS  wliicli  too  oftcn  Spring  from  infidel- 
ity; in  c(7ntrast'with  the  meek  patiqnce  under  suffering,  of 
the  humble  Christian?  Yes,  the  pride  and  vain  objections 
of  unbelievers  give  way  under  them.  Abandoned  of  the 
Spirit  of  grace,  they  may  believe  their  own  lie;  but  they 
have  no  hold  really  of  that  natural  religion  which,  for  the 
purposes  of  argument,  they  will  defend.  All  their  pursuits, 
and  habits,  and  principles,  have  been  cherishing  selfish  pas- 
sions, a  sense  of  personal   importance,  discontent  and  mis- 

(r)  In  1818,  a  gold  medal  was  presented  lohim  by  riic  Ro^al  and  Central  Agricul- 
tural Society  of  Paris,  for  his  iinprovcmcnis  in  agriculture,  and  his  advancement  of 
the  inlere.sls  of  humanity. 

(s)  Memoirs  of  Oberlin. 


LECT.    XXII.]  EVIDENCES     OF     CHRISTIANITY.  273 

anthropy,  licentious  indul^jences  pushed  to  satiety,  and 
issuing  in  a  total  dissolution  of  the  moral  principle.  The 
object  of  pity  and  contempt  to  mankind,  they  have  no 
refuoje  in  the  time  of  calamity,  which  they  often  create  by 
their  crimes;  and  then,  hurried  forward  by  Satan,  the  great 
murderer,  they  hesitate  not,  oftentimes,  to  lay  violent  hands 
on  themselves.'  Thus  fearfully  do  too  many  of  them  close 
the  career  of  vanity,  presumption,  and  defiance  of  the 
Almighty.  Thus  does  the  last  and  most  daring  of  all  pro- 
vocations, a  crime  whicii  heathen  moralists  condemned,  and 
which  outrages  that  first  powerful  principle  of  self-preser- 
vation implanted  in  all  animated  beings  by  the  Creator, 
close  the  moral  proof  against  the  infidel,  and  serve  to  seal, 
with  the  indignation  of  the  great  Governor  of  the  universe, 
a  cause  which   peculiarly  provokes  his  divine  majesty. 

Contrast  with  this  the  meek  patience  of  the  suffering 
Christian,  when  nature,  oppressed  with  disease,  and  racked 
with  pain,  reposes  yet  on  the  bosom  of  Omnipotence,  and 
flies  for  succour  to  the  arms  of  a  merciful  and  all-wise  God. 
Yes,  instead  of  thinking  of  the  desperate  resource  of  self- 
destruction  he  finds  relief  in  faith  and  resignation;  he  is 
sustained  by  the  gracious  Spirit;  he  submits  humbly  to  the 
divine  appointments;  he  says,  "Not  my  will,  but  thine  be 
done." 

But  I  need  not  confine  myself,  as  I  have  done,  to  an 
appeal  to  public  authorities,  and  the  lives  of  saints,  recorded 
in  writings  accessible  to  all.  I  might  appeal  to  the  observa-  . 
tion  of  actual  matters  of  fact,  occurring  under  the  eye  of 
the  ministers  of  religion;  and,  indeed,  of  every  Christian  at 
all  advanced  in  the  journey  of  life,  and  furnished  with 
occasions  of  making  the  remark. 

You  have  seen  the  venerable  father  of  a  family,  after  a 
long  life  of  useful  diligence,  meeting  the  last  agonies  of 
sickness,  and  the  extreme  struggle  of  nature,  with  unyield- 
ing patience;  a  mind  reposing  on  God;  a  steady,  humble, 
firm  acquiescence  in  the  divine  will;  a  freedom  from  dis- 
content   and    repining;    a  full  persuasion  that    a  heavenly 

(s)  The  number  of  suicides  in  France  during  the  reign  of  infidelity  and  aiheispi, 
was  frightful. 

35 


274  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXII. 

rest   awaits    him — in   this  way  he   departs,  and  leaves    the 
fragrance  of  his  example  to  his  children. 

You  have  seen  the  aged  and  beloved  mother,  in  extreme 
weakness,  waiting  year  after  year  for  the  coming  of  her 
Lord.  Languishing  disease  visits  her  frame;  nature  feels 
and  shrinks  from  suffering,  but  religion  steps  in;  the  princi- 
ples acted  upon  through  life  sustain  her  in  meek  submission 
to  the  holy  will  of  her  heavenly  Father;  the  struggle  is  over, 
and  she  is  made  more  than  a  conqueror  through  him  that 
hath  loved  her. 

You  have  followed  through  years  of  intense,  pain  and  suf- 
fering, an  affectionate  wife,  the  mother  of  your  children,  the 
com[)anion  of  your  sorrows.  Christianity  has  never  failed 
her.  Patience  has  had  her  perfect  work.  A  prospect  of  hea- 
ven has  gilded  the  margin  of  the  tomb.  Anguish  and  grief 
have  been  felt,  but  have  been  sustained  by  the  inward  sup- 
plies of  grace  and  consolation.  Prayer,  exhortations  to  her 
children,  praises  to  her  Redeemer,  meditations  on  the  gluries 
of  heaven,  have  beguiled  the  hours  of  suffering,  and  have 
carried  nature  above  itself 

You  have  seen  the  beloved  child,  in  the  first  bloom  of 
youth,  snatched  by  a  stroke  of  calamity  or  disease  from 
your  anxious  and  flattering  hopes;  but  you  have  seen  the 
Christian  faith,  as  the  anchor  of  the  soul,  support  the  suf- 
feref,  pour  in  a  flood  of  light  and  peace  into  the  dark,  dark 
chamber,  and  begin,  even  upon  earth,  the  joy  and  the  songs 
of  the  redeemed  in  heaven. 

These  scenes  arc  occurring  daily.  The  records  of  every 
family  where  real  Christianity  is  known,  contain  such  his- 
tories. And,  in  truth,  all  the  preceding  points  of  the  con- 
trast are  equally  verified  in  tlic  private  annals  of  Christian 
alTection;  just  as  the  same  private  recollections  furnish  un- 
numbered confirmations  of  what  we  have  asserted,  from 
public  documents,  as  to  the  deaths  of  unbelievers. 

And  how  can  1  bring  myself  to  say  any  thing,  after  this 
contrast,  on  the  respective  pkeparation  for  an  eternal 
STATE  OF  BEING,  38  made  by  the  two  classes  before  usi* 
How  can  I  pause  to  ask  you  which  prepares  most  rationally 
and  cflkicntly  for  that  future  world  which  they  profess,  in 


LECT.     XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  275 

common,  to  be  the  great-object  of  life?  Place  the  two  bod- 
ies in  contrast,  in  this  respect.  View  them  with  all  the  im- 
partiality wiiicli  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  subject,  and 
tell  me  which  fulfils  best  the  ends  of  their  being,  as  imnior- 
tal,  accountable  creatures,  placed  in  a  state  of  probation, 
and  preparing  themselves,  by  the  habits  which  they  now 
acquire,  for  a  correspondent  state  of  existence  through 
eternity. 

The  very  question  answers  itself;  so  completely  are  the 
professed  principles  of  the  infidel  belied  in  practice.  He 
has,  in  truth,  no  principles;  he  acts  as  if  he  had  no  soul;  he 
sinks  man  into  the  brute;  he  obliterates  the  disiinction  of 
reason  and  moral  government;  he  plays  the  desperate  game 
of  daring  the  almighty  Judge  of  the  world.  The  end  of 
man's  being  is  lost,  so  far  as  the  unbeliever  is  concerned,  if 
that  end  be  to  honor  God,  his  Creator;  to  love  and  serve 
him,  to  please  and  worship,  to  regard  and  reverence  his 
name.  The  end  of  man's  being  is  lost,  if  it  be  to  rise  from 
the  lower  appetites  and  the  dominion  of  sensuality,  to 
spiritual  enjoyments,  the  contemplation  of  heaven,  the  exer- 
cises of  holy  affections.  The  end  of  man's  being  is  lost,  if 
it  be  to  disseminate  the  largest  measure  of  ha})piness,  to 
exercise  kindness  and  benignity  to  his  fellow-creatures,  to 
purify  and  enlarge  his  moral  faculties,  and  to  attain  the 
highest  measure  of  the  love  of  God  and  man.  The  end  of 
man's  being  is  lost,  if  it  be  to  have  an  eye  on  his  eternal 
destinies,  and  consider  himseTf  a  stranger  here  on  earth 
whose  home,  whose  happiness,  whose  repose  is  heaven.  In- 
fidelity is  the  wretched  device  to  indulge  the  worst  propen- 
sities of  a  fallen  understanding  and  a  fallen  heart;  it  virtu- 
ally excludes  God  and  religion  from  the  regard  of  man;  it 
chains  him  down  to  earth,  and  shuts  out  from  his  view 
all  that  would  disencumber,  elevate,  and  bless  him.  There 
lies  the  low,  grovelling,  enslaved  creature;  all  his  nobler 
powers  depressed;  his  connexion  with  God  and  eternity  for- 
gotten; the  sport  of  objection  and  prejudice  and  lust  and 
malignant  passions;  with  no  religion  to  counsel  him  here, 
no  futurity  to  reward  him  hereafter — But  it  cannot  be.  Man 
cannot  altogether  obliterate  his  moral  nature.     Conscience 


276  LKCTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXII. 

refuses  the  compact.  Tlie  asf)irations  and  breathings  of 
n)an  after  immortality  cannot  be  altogether  suppressed. 
The  infidel  is  wrt'tched,  dissatisfied,  foreboding — though  an 
athci.-'t  in  principle  if  not  in  words,  he  is  compelled  to  feel 
even  here,  the  retributive  justice  which  the  Almighty  docs 
not  fail  to  exercise. 

And  now,  turn  to  the  real  Christian.  After  making  every 
deduction  for  his  imperfectiorts,  and  the  consequences  of 
temptation;  yet,  what  is  the  main  bent  of  his  character.'' 
All  bears  on  the  end  of  man;  all  tends  to  elevate,  to  purify, 
to  bless  him.  The  immortality  and  immateriality  of  the 
soul,  a  future  judgment,  the  state  of  probation  in  which  he 
now  is;  a  preparation,  by  habits  acquired  here,  for  the 
enjoyment  of  eternity;  a  regard  to  God,  the  supreme  Arbi- 
ter— these  principles  enter  into  all  his  conduct,  and  regulate 
the  business  of  every  day.  To  subdue  his  fallen  propensi- 
ties— to  press  down  the  cravings  of  appetite — to  extirpate 
the  seeds  of  the  malignant  passions,  is  his  main  design.  His 
pursuits,  his  religious  duties,  his  conversation,  his  reading, 
all  tend  to  these  objects.  He  labors  to  give  the  soul  the 
advantage  over  the  body;  to  give  the  future  the  advantage 
over  the  present;  to  give  eternity  the  advantage  over  time; 
to  give  to  God  and  duty  the  advantage  over  Satan  and  sin; 
and  the  peculiar  discoveries  of  the  Christianity  which  he 
believes,  the  grace  and  revelation  of  Christ,  and  the  influ- 
ences of  the  Spirit,  carry  him  on  toward  his  end — prepare 
him  for  eternity.  The  love  of  God  and  his  Saviour  fills  his 
heart,  and  expands  and  strengthens  his  capacities  for  spirit- 
ual enjoyments. 

And  there  is  this  remarkable  in  the  contrast  of  the  two 
classes,  that  each  becomes  more  distinctly  under  the  influ- 
ence, good  and  bad,  of  his  principles,  as  time  flows  on  and 
death  approaches.  The  infidel  is  worse  the  longer  he  lives; 
the  Christian  better.  The  infidel  sinks  lower;  the  Christian 
rises  higher.  The  infidel  is  more  gloomy;  the  Christian 
more  cheerful.  The  infidel  clings  more  tenaciously  to  the 
world,  which  he  is  quitting;  the  Christian  is  attracted  more 
powerfully  towards  the  heavenly  state,  to  which  he  is  going. 


LKCT.   XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    OTIRISTIANITY.  277 

And   what  can   speak  more   loudly,   as   to   which   of  the 
classes  has   truth  with  it,  than  the  contrast,  so  dark  on   the 
one  side,  so  bright  on  the  other!     And  there  ia  less  of  doubt 
in  the  accuracy  of  these  statements;  because,  whatever  else 
the  infidel  may  pretend  to  during  life,  he  never  claims  much 
familiarity  with  a  future  world:  he   boasts  and   glories  in  his 
earthly  prospects;  he  openly  discards   any  pleasurable   and 
voluntary  contemplation  of  a   heavenly  state.     Selfish   and 
sensual  gratifications,  schemes  of  worldly  ambition,  the  pur- 
suit of  wealth  or  literature,  or  lucre,  are  avowedly  his  objects. 
The  Christian,  on  the  other  hand,  has  his  delight  in  the  con- 
templation of  eternity;  he   converses   willingly  on   a   future 
world;  he   professes   continually  to   delight   in   higher   and 
nobler  and   purer   objects  than   any   earthly   possessions  or 
acquirements.     He    has   the   stamp   and   seal   of   God    and 
heaven  upon  him,  as  he  approaches  the  close  of  his  mortal 
career. 

The  case  speaks  loudly,  and  appeals  to  every  conscience. 
Consider  only  the  two  classes  of  men  on  the  largest  scale. 
Leave  out  all  doubtful  individuals.  Take  the  thorough  and 
complete  unbeliever  and  the  thorough  and  complete  Chris- 
tian; and  the  more  you  examine  the  two  characters  in  their 
principles,  their  practice,  their  claims  to  benevolence,  their 
public  labors  and  writings,  their  deaths,  their  fulfilment  of 
the  ends  of  their  being,  the  deeper  will  be  your  conviction 
of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  utter  folly 
and  impiety  of  infidelity. 

I  dare  not  pursue  the  subject  further.  I  shrink  from  the 
contemplation  of  the  eternal  condition  of  the  two  bodies  of 
men.  I  could  dwell,  indeed,  on  the  ineffable  joys  of  the 
humble  Christian,  his  immediate  access  to  his  Maker  and 
Redeemer,  his  freedom  from  all  pain,  all  im[)erfection,  all 
change;  his  fruition  of  all  the  bliss  of  which  his  body  and 
his  soul  are  capable:  but  the  other  side  of  the  contrast 
would  be  loo  fearful.  I  draw  a  veil  over  the  scene — I  have 
said  enough. 

I  would  fain  persuade  myself  that  there  is  not  a  young 
person  before  me,  who  does  not  feel  convinced  that  the 
objections  of  infidelity  turn  out,  as  we  predicted,  to  be  a 


278  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXII. 

confirmation  of  the  cause  they  were  adduced  to  oppose; 
that  they  not  only  lose  their  force,  but  become  one  of  tiie 
most  fruitful  sources  of  subsidiary  proof  to  the  divine  origin 
of  the  Bible. 

Yes;  the  whole  question  about  Christianity,  and  its  im- 
portance and  truth,  may  be  settled  by  the  subject  before  us. 

Conceive  all  the  wise  and  good  men  through  every  gener- 
ation, and  in  the  most  distant  countries,  who  have  agreed  in 
receiving  the  Bible  as  a  divine  Revelation,  to  be  assembled 
together.  Weigh  their  pretensions  to  your  confidence. 
Many  of  them  have  been  noted  for  seriousness,  erudition, 
extent  of  talent,  penetration,  and  impartiality  in  judging 
of  men  and  things.  They  have  taken  the  utmost  pains  to 
satisfy  themselves  upon  the  question  of  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity. Their  holy  lives  and  patient  suflferings,  and  happy 
deaths,  (many  of  them  by  martyrdom,)  command  the  res- 
pect.of  all  who  know  them,  and  are  proper  grounds  of  con- 
fidence, in  their  deliberate  judgment,  as  to  a  question  of 
religion. 

Then  assemble  in  another  body,  the  leading  infidels  and 
unbelievers,  who  have  Mved  in  many  generations,  and  in 
distant  countries,  and  who  have  agreed  in  rejecting,  on  the 
ground  of  speculative,  and  inconsistent,  and  oft-refuted  ob- 
jections, the  truth  of  Christianity.  Weigh  the  natural 
grounds  of  distrust  on  a  religious  question,  which  their  hab- 
its, their  tempers,  their  pursuits,  their  vicious  lives,  their 
fearful  deaths,  present.  Consider  the  atheism  into  which 
they  have  too  often  fallen.  Consider  the  utter  destitution  of 
any  thing  in  the  place  of  Christianity,  which  they  are  com- 
pelled to  confess.  Observe  the  levity,  ridicule,  scorn,  ap- 
parent in  their  spirit  and  conduct.  Mark  the  impurity  and 
sensuality,  the  pride  and  presumption,  which  prevail  in  their 
writings.  Observe  their  awfiil  deaths.  Weigh  the  manner 
in  which  they  respectively  prepare  for  an  eternal  world. 

Tell  me,  then,  which  company  has  truth  on  its 
SIDE.     Tell  me  which    company  you    would  wish  to  be 

FOUND    IN    at    the    BAR    OF    GoD. 

I  cannot  but  suppose  that  if  an  individual  of  any  class  of 
beings,  of  entire  impartiality,  of  a  sound  mind,  and  of  a 


LECT.    XXII.J  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  279 

holy  disposition,  should  be  shown  the  two  companies  of 
those  who  have  received  and  those  who  have  rejected  the 
Scriptures;  and  should  compare  the  seriousness,  learning, 
patient  investigation  of  truth,  solid  judgment,  holy,  useful 
lives,  manly  and  becoming  composure  in  a  dying  hour,  of 
the  one  company,  with  the  character  and  conduct  of  the 
other,  he  would  be  induced,  though  he  knew  nothing  of  the 
direct  arguments  for  the  Christian  RevelaiioUi  to  take  up  the 
Bible  with  profound  veneration,  and  the  strongest  prepos- 
session in  its  favor." 

But,  strong  as  this  ground  in  favor  of  Christianity  is,  you 
do  not  merely  stand  here.  You  place  your  feet,  my  young 
friends,  upon  the  mass  of  external  and  internal  evidences,  on 
which  its  divine  authority  rests.  You  plant  yourselves  upon 
the  testimonies  by  which  it  is  maintained.  You  fix  your 
standing,  in  the  midst  of  a  confused  and  dark  world,  ui>on  an 
immovable  rock. 

It  is  only  as  a  subsidiary  argument  that  I  have  been  con- 
sidering the  vanity  of  the  objections  against  Christianity  in 
themselves  and  in  the  persons  who  advance  them. 

Choose,  then,  your  part  more  decidedly  and  boldly.  If 
you  have  been  at  all  entangled  by  the  artful  sophisms  of 
scepticism,  (and  nothing  is  more  easy  to  the  corrupt  heart 
of  man,)  break  through  the  fatal  delusion.  Awake  to  the 
true  state  of  things.  If  you  cannot  answer  those  objec- 
tions specifically,  outweigh  them  by  the  positive  facts  of 
Christianity;  outweigh  them  by  considering  the  impertinence 
of  speculative  reasonings,  against  the  historical  and  un- 
controverted  evidences  of  Revelation;  outweigh  them  by 
remembering  that  they  apply  as  much  to  Deism  as  they  do  to 
Christianity;  outweigh  them  by  recollecting  that  they  are 
only  trials  of  your  sincerity  rtnd  submission  of  heart  to  God. 
But,  beside  this,  especially  outweigh  them  by  looking  at  the 
lives  and  deatlis  of  those  who  make  objections  to  Christian- 
ity, and  of  those  who  obey  Revelation.  Death  is  near. 
The  solemnities  of  that  hour,  no  trifling,  no  obduracy  can 
lessen.     The  awful  consequences  of  that  hour  no  tongue 

(u)  Scolt. 


280  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXII, 

can  describe.  Reject,  then,  all  the  overtures  of  unbelief, 
which  has  no  blessing  of  God  in  life  nor  in  death.  Fly  from 
the  society  of  those  persons  with  whom  you  would  not  wish 
to  be  associated  in  eternity. 

Remember,  if  you  would  be  joined  with  the  righteous 
in  their  death,  you  must  follow  their  example  in  life.  I 
know  that  you  would  prefer  to  enter  another  world  with  the 
wise  and  good.  But  the  question  of  most  practical  impor- 
tance is,  WHICH  COMPANY  DO  YOU  WALK  WITH  IN  THE  JOUR- 
NEY OF  LIFE.''  Choose  now,  while  time  is  granted  you,  the 
right  path.  Take,  with  wisdom  and  manliness,  the  side  of 
truth.  All  ungodliness  is  essentially  infidelity;  it  springs 
from  that  temper — it  leads  to  it.  Christianity  is  essentially 
sodliness  and  holiness.  Obedience  and  disobedience  to 
Almighty  God  form  the  substance  of  the  two  classes. 

All  we  have  been  stating  in  this  Lecture,  and,  indeed,  in 
all  those  on  the  internal  evidences,  are  the  declarations  of 
the  moral  Governor  of  the  world  against  infidelity,  and  in 
favor  of  Christianity:  they  are  so  many  stamps  and  brands 
of  the  divine  displeasure  upon  the  whole  system  of  unbe- 
lief, and  of  divine  approbation  upon  the  whole  system  of 
the  Christian  evidences.  Just  as  the  course  of  events  in  the 
natural  world  has  the  impress  of  God's  approbation  of  pru- 
dence and  forethought,  and  his  disapprobation  of  careless- 
ness and  improvidence;  and  as  his  government  of  the  moral 
world  is  filled  with  indications  of  his  favor  towards  virtue, 
and  his  indignation  against  vice;  so  are  the  lives  and  deaths 
of  infidels,  compared  with  those  of  sincere  Christians,  dem- 
onstrations in  favor  of  Christianity,  and  against  unbelief; 
demonstrations  which  no  arts  can  evade,  no  sophisms  misin- 
terpret; demonstrations  which  multiply  upon  our  view  the 
more  we  pursue  the  subject,  and  which  the  inmost  soul  of 
man  cannot  but  feel  and  acknowledge;  demonstrations 
which  augment  in  intenseness  in  each  case,  as  the  respec- 
tive principles  are  more  fully  acted  upon,  and  the  termina- 
tion of  life  draws  nigh;  demonstrations  which  render  specu- 
lative objections  matters  of  direct  criminality  and  positive 
perverseness  and  rebellion  of  heart  in  those  who  adhere  to 
them;  and  which  carry  the  direct  evidences  of  Revelation 


LECT.    XXII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHKISTIANITY.  281 

to  their  utmost  height  of  satisfaction  to  every  considerate 
mind;  demonstrations,  in  a  word,  which  turn  the  weapons 
of  infidelity,  as  we  predicted  would  be  the  case,  against 
itself,  and  render  them  the  instruments  of  its  overthrow;  so 
that,  instead  of  proving  any  thing  against  Christianity,  they 
demonstrate  that  a  religion,  attested  by  such  solid  evidences 
on  the  one  hand,  and  opposed  by  the  weak  and  unfounded 
cavils  of  such  unprincipled  and  unhappy  men  on  the  other, 
cannot  but  be  divine. 


36 


LECTURE    XXIII, 


THE     FAITH     WITH    WHICH    THE      CHRISTIAN 
REVELATION  IS  TO  BE  RECEIVED. 

1  John  v.  9. 

If   we  receive    the    witness  of    men,  the    witness    of    God    is 

greater. 

Having  concluded  the  arguments  by  which  the  truth  of 
Christianity  is  established,  it  might  be  thought  thnt  nothing 
further  need  be  observed;  but  that  tlie  whole  subject  should 
now  be  left  to  the  reflections  of  tlie  humMe  inquirer.  And 
thus  it  must  be  left;  but  not  before  we  have  described  the 
FAITH  with  which  thfe  Revelation  should  be  received,  the 
iNTEKPRETATiON  wliich  that  faith  implies,  and  the  obliga- 
tion under  which  every  one  is  placed  to  receive  and  obey 
the  religion. 

For  such  is  the  corruption  of  man,  that  nothing  must  be 
taken  for  granted.  Certainly  he  ought  most  thankfully  to 
embrace  the  Christian  doctrine.  Certainly  nothing  is  so 
reasonable  and  so  directly  calculated  to  jjiomote  his  pres- 
ent and  future  happiness,  as  to  welcome  with  joy  the  tidings 
of  salvation.  Yet  he  is  far  from  doing  this  as  he  should. 
After  all  the  arguments  in  the  world,  his  perverse  heart 
may,  and  often  does,  refuse  to  act  upon  the  conclusions  to 
which  ihcy  lead;  it  too  often  yields  only  a  tame   assent  to 


LECT.    XXIII.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  28$ 

the  Revelation;  it  explains  away  the  meaning  of  all  the  main 
truths  of  Scripture;  it  weakens  or  denies  the  practical  obli- 
gations which  the  whole  subject  imposes.  Thus,  the  great 
design  of  the  Christian  religion  is  defeated.  We  must  ex- 
plain, therefore,  what  i,s  meant  by  faith,  what  is  meant  by 
a  sound  interpretation  of  the  records  which  it  receives,  and 
the  practical  obligations  resulting  from  both. 

These  topics  will  occupy  the  three  following  Lectures, 
and  leave  us  at  liberty  to  sum  up  the  entire  course  in  a  con- 
cluding one. 

On  the  present  occasion  we  shall  endeavor  to  show  the 
NATURE  of  the  faith  with  which  we  should  receive  the  Chris- 
tian Revelation;  the  KEASONABLf:NEss  of  our  being  called  on 
for  such  a  faith,  after  having  admitted  the  divine  authority  of 
Christianity;  and  the  extent  to  which,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  this  faith  should  be  carried. 

I.  VVe  consider  the  nature  of  faith  in  divine  reve- 
lation. 

Something  has  been  incidentally  said  on  this  subject  in 
several  of  our  preceding  Lectures,"  and  the  way  prepared 
for  the  specific  consideration  wliich  belongs  to  this  place. 

Faith,  in  its  general  import,  is  credit  given  to  testimony; 
it  is  the  reliance  of  the  mind  on  the  report  or  statement 
made  by  another.  It  is  that  peculiar  act  of  the  understand- 
ing by  which  we  avail  ourselves  of  information  in  thosq, 
things  which  do  not  fall  under  our  own  observation,  and  do 
not  admit  of  proof  in  the  way  of  reasoning. 

The  complicated  machine  of  human  society  is  moved 
almost  exclusively  by  this  very  principle  which  men  so  fre- 
quently object  to,  as  it  respects  Christianity. 

Testimony  received  and  relied  on,  directs  the  determina- 
tion of  princes  and  councils,  of  senates  and  military  com- 

(a)  At  every  step  in  the  External  arsjument,  we  pointed  out  the  degree  of  faith 
wliicli  should  follow  it,  especially  in  Leciures  vi.  and  vii.  on  the  Credibility  and  Mir- 
acles. When  we  reviewed  the  internal  arguments,  we  showc<l  that  they  sprung  from 
a  just  reliance  on  the  truth  of  the  Revelation  as  established  by  the  precediiig-  strin"' 
of  proofs.  In  the  Lectures  (xix.  and  xx.)  on  the  lest,  faith  was  of  necessity  again 
touclied  upon.  Our  last  two  Lectures  on  the  Objections  yet  more  directly  prepared 
the  way  for  considering  it. 


284  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIII. 

manders,  of  judges  and  magistrates,  of  merchants  and  schol- 
ars; in  short,  of  all  the  various  classes  of  persons,  in  all  the 
various  ramifications  of  their  dealings  with  eaeh  other.  Hu- 
man testimony,  in  matters  which  fall  within  its  province,  is 
as  sure  a  rule  of  triilh,  as  the  senses  and  reasonings  are, 
in  the  things  to  which  they  are  respectively  applicable.  A 
reliance  on  testimony  is  as  much  a  law  of  our  nature  as  is 
consciousness  or  moral  responsibility.  Human  life  is  gov- 
erned by  it.  Every  man  has  this  faculty  or  capacity  of  be- 
lieving; and  every  man  exerts  it  according  to  his  associa- 
tions of  thought  and  habitual  feelings. 

When  we  s[)eak,  then,  of  faith  in  a  divine  Revelation,  we 
speak  of  a  thing  perfectly  well  known  in  itself,  though,  from 
the  depravity  of  our  nature,  difficulties  attend  it  w  hen  ap- 
plied to  this  particular  subject.  But  in  itself  what  is  faith 
in  Christianity.^  It  is  credit  given  to  a  divine  testimony — a 
reliance  of  mind  on  the  record  or  statement  made  by  al- 
mighty God  in  the  book  which  we  admit  to  be  inspired  and 
dictated  by  Him. 

The  apostles,  at  the  promulgation  of  the  gospel,  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  The  Jews  and  Heathen 
hear  their  testimony,  and  see  the  miraculous  works  whieh 
sustain  it.  They  act  upon  the  infinitely  important  matters 
thus  brought  to  their  knowledge;  they  credit  the  report; 
they  believe  the  gospel.  This  is  the  turning  point  in  their 
conversion.  The  gospel  and  epistles  are  written  by  the  same 
inspired  men,  and  are  sent  to  the  different  Pagan  people; 
the  evidences  of  the  books  are  stated;  the  people  receive 
them  as  divine,  believe  in  them,  rely  on  tiiem — this  is  faith; 
the  link  between  the  testimony  of  God  contained  in  the 
Revelation,  and  their  minds.  Eighteen  centuries  pass;  the 
sacred  books  are  handed  down  to  us;  they  are  proved  to  be 
authentic,  credible,  of  divine  authority,  inspired;  they  are 
found  to  contain  much  that  is  obviously  most  worthy  of 
God,  and  most  suitable  to  man;  they  offer  themselves  to  us, 
in  some  part  of  their  contents,  as  the  subject  of  actual  ex- 
periment; the  speculative  objections  raised  against  them  are 
frivolous  and  contradictory.  What  ne.xt.''  Ifl  act  as  be- 
comes an  accountable  being,  I  repose  with  my  whole  mind 


LECT.    XXIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  285 

on  the  sure  testimony  of  God;  I  exercise  the  same  faculty  of 
believing,  by  which  I  continually  guide  myself  in  all  my 
most  weighty  nnd  momentous  temporal  affairs,  on  this  new 
and  divine  testimony  which  is  laid  before  me  by  the  infi- 
nitely wise,  infinitely  true,  and  infinitely  holy  Creator  and 
Judge  of  the  world. 

And  if  a  child  relies  on  the  witness  of  an  earthly  father; 
if  it  knows  and  feels  something  of  its  own  weakness,  ignor- 
ance, and  liableness  to  err;  and  not  only  credits  in  a  slight 
and  general  manner  what  its  parent  says,  but  has  confidence 
in  him,  relies  with  implicit  trust  and  repose  of  mind,  and 
receives  with  affectionate  gratitude  all  his  communications; 
much  more  shall  man,  the  weak,  ignorant,  fallen  child  of 
a  heavenly  parent,  receive  that  parent's  testimony,  and  con- 
fide in  it  with  repose  and  satisfaction  of  mind,  with  gratitude 
and  joy. 

The  scripture  contains  a  message  of  infinite  importance 
from  the  eternal  God  to  his  rebellious  creatures.  The  mes- 
senger arrives.  His  credentials  are  exhibited.  The  exter- 
nal evidences  are  admitted  to  be  irresistible.  The  internal 
offer  a  series  of  subsidiary  proofs.  The  overthrow  of  objec- 
tions completes  the  demonstration.  What  follows?  Man 
receives  by  faith  the  testimony,  the  well  authenticated  testi- 
mony, of  God.  Faith  is  the  medium  between  the  invisible 
truths  which  the  Bible  reveals,  and  the  human  soul;  the  link 
between  the  testimony  of  God  without  us,  and  the  mind  of 
man  to  whom  it  is  made.  Just  as  the  senses  are  the  medium 
between  cxiernal  objects  and  the  human  understandintj;  and 
as  consciousness  is  the  medium  in  the  case  of  things  takin^ 
place  in  the  interior  of  the  heart;  and  as  reasoning  in  mat- 
ters within  the  scope  of  the  human  faculties — so  is  faitii  the 
medium  between  truths  presented  to  us  on  the  testimony  of 
God  and  our  minds;  fiith  places  them  within  the  sphere  of 
vision,  makes  them  palpable,  enables  us  to  avail  ourselves  of 
them.  It  is  like  the  telescope  to  the  natural  eye;  it  brings 
near  in  their  real  magnitude  and  proportion,  those  objects 
of  an  invisible  world,  which  reason  could  only  dimly  discern 
by  its  innate  powers  and  the  aid  of  tradition,  or  not  discern 
at  all. 


286  LECTURES    ON   TTIF.  [lECT.  XXllI. 

All  this  is  perfectly  clear,  I  think,  even  to  the  youngest 
person  before  me.  Tiiere  is  no  difTercnce  between  faith  in 
human  alVairs  and  divine,  as  respects  the  act  of  the  mind 
on  the  object  presented  to  it.  The  object  in  each  case  is 
testimony;  the  degree  ,of  affiance,  indeed,  differs  as  greatly 
as  divine  and  human,  as  fallible  and  infallible  authority. 
But  the  act  of  the  mind  is  in  each  case  essentially  the 
same. 

The  great  practical  distinction  between  faith,  as  exercis- 
ed on  human  testimony  and  on  divine,  arises  from  the  fallen 
state  of  man,  and  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  discoveries  con- 
tained in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

If  the  Bible  were  a  mere  theory  of  abstract  science,  or  a 
cold  historical  narrative,  or  a  siiiiple  rule  of  morals,  there 
never  would  have  been  any  dispute  about  the  nature  of  the 
faith  which  receives  it;  because  there  would  have  been 
nothing  in  it  contrary  to  the  inclinations  of  man,  and  little 
surpassing  his  reasoning  powers.  But  many  of  the  truths 
of  Scripture  are  so  contrary  to  his  pride  and  worldly  lusts; 
they  so  far  surmount  his  low  and  limited  capacities;  they 
demand  such  sacrifices  of  prejudices  and  passions,  that  no 
evidence  is  sufficient  to  induce  a  cordial  belief,  till  the 
mind  is  prepared  by  [)revenient''  grace.  Man  is  proud,  and 
sensual,  and  refuses  to  apply  the  same  act  of  the  mind  which 
he  is  employing  daily  in  matters  of  human  witness,  to  the 
reception  of  the  divine.'^ 

This  forms  the  ground  of  the  distinction  between  a  living 
and  a  dead  faith.  A  dead  faith  is  a  cold  speculative  assent 
to  the  truth  of  Scripture,  with  some  general  acknowledg- 
ment of  its  principal  facts  and  doctrines  as  propounded  in 
the  creeds  of  Christian  churches.  It  may  include  a  theo- 
retical acquaintance  with  all  the  particular  doctrines  of 
which  these  creeds  are  composed;  but  it  neither  obeys  them 
in  the  affections  of  the  heart  nor  the  actions  of  the  life. 
Accordingly,  as  we  should  say  that  a  man  who  professed  to 

(b)  I  use  this  word  as  less  ambiguous  llian  prevenling. 

(c)  "Perliaps  ii  is  llie  consiaiil  resistance  which  is  made  by  llie  flesh  t  the  claims 
of  a  spiritual  religion,  and  the  consequent  disinclination  to  a  full  and  firm  belief, 
which  renders  faith  so  eminently  a  Christian  virtue."— Bishop  Blomfield. 


LECT.   XXIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  287 

believe  in  the  obligations  of  municipal  law,  who  studied 
them  all  his  life,  and  made  himself  acquainted  with  their 
frame-work;  and  yet  never  reverenced,  never  obeyed  them, 
never  enjoyed  the  security  they  afforded,  but  violated  them 
continually,  and  incurred  the  penalties  they  imposed;  had 
merely  a  dead  faith  in  these  obligations:  so  we  say,  that  he 
who  professes  to  believe  in  the  Christian  Revelation,  who 
admits  its  truth,  studies  it  all  his  life,  and  becomes  acquaint- 
ed with  its  frame-work;  and  yet  never  reverences,  never 
obeys  it,  never  enjoys  the  blessings  it  promises;  but  violates 
its  commands  and  incurs  the  penalties  it  threatens;  has  only 
a  dead  faith  in  Christianity. 

Faith,  to  deserve  the  name,  must  be  a  living,  influential 
principle,  seated  in  the  heart  as  well  as  the  understanding, 
taking  possession  of  the  whole  man,  leading  him  to  think, 
and  act,  and  feel  agreeably  to  the  truth  and  importance  of 
what  is  brought  to  his  knowledge;  it  must  call  forth  fear, 
hope,  desire,  aversion,  love,  gratitude;  just  exactly  as  faith 
in  human  testimony  does,  in  proportion  to  the  truth  and  im- 
portance of  what  is  thus  apprehended. 

A  man  is  tossed  in  a  bark  upon  the  wide  ocean:  all  is 
dark;  the  sea  rages;  the  tempest  howls;  death  impends. 
He  says  he  possesses  a  compass  in  the  virtue  of  which  he  fully 
believes;  yet  he  never  consults  it,  never  reposes  any  trust 
in  its  guidance,  never  direc^ts  his  course  according  to  its 
indications — he  has  only  a  dead  faith.  A  living  faith  would 
have  led  him  to  act  unreservedly  on  the  compass  in  which 
he  said  he  believed,  to  look  at  it  every  moment,  to  disre- 
gard the  opinions  of  the  passengers  or  crew;  to  follow  its 
directions  at  all  risks,  and  thus  wait  with  fortitude  and 
calmness  for  the  abating  of  the  storm. 

No  doubt  would  ever  have  been  raised  concerninff  this 
point,  if  it  had  not  been  for  that  very  corruption  of  man, 
which  the  gospel  is  revealed  to  cure. 

And  the  case  will  be  more  clear,  if  we  remember  the  oc- 
casion upon  which  this  faith  is  demanded.  For  consider 
the  glory  of  that  God  who  reveals  the  Scriptures,  the  sub- 
ject matter  of  the  Revelation,  and  the  state  of  man  to  whom 
it  is  made,  and  you  will  see  that  a  living  and  efficacious 


288  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXUl. 

faith,  a  faith  including  a  repose  and  trust  of  the  whole  soul, 
with  all  its  faculties  and  powers;  a  faith  sought  for  by  earnest 
prayer;  a  faith  produced  by  the  influences  of  grace  in  the 
heart  is  essentially  necessary. 

For  who  is  the  Author  of  the  Bible?  Is  he  a  man  like 
ourselves?  No;  it  is  a  Revelation  from  the  great  and  glo- 
rious God,  whose  perfections  surpass  all  human  understand- 
ing. A  message  from  such  a  Being,  whose  is  our  felicity  for 
time  and  eternity,  should  be  received  with  a  reverent,  a 
grateful  exercise  of  the  whole  understanding  and  heart. 
How  does  an  obedient  subject  receive  .a  message  from  his 
earthly  sovereign? 

And  what  does  this  Revelation  regard?  Is  it  a  matter 
of  secondary  moment?  Is  it  information  about  the  creation 
of  the  world  merely,  and  the  order  of  nature?  Is  it  an  his- 
torical document  about  the  series  of  ages?  Is  it  an  accu- 
mulation of  ceremonies?  No;  it  is  concerned  in  no  such 
limited  topic.  No;  the  Revelation  of  the  great  God  to 
man  regards  matters  of  eternal  moment — man's  fall  and 
guilt,  redemption  by  the  incarnation  and  sacrifice  of  the  Son 
of  God,  a  sanctifying  Spirit,  the  operations  of  grace  on  the 
heart,  the  love  of  God  restored,  preparation  for  death  and 
judgment.  It  reveals  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  It  re- 
veals an  invisible  world.  It  communicates  truth  vital,  mo- 
mentous, indispensable.  What,  then,  is  the  faith  with  which 
such  a  Revelation  should  be  obeyed?  How  would  a  her- 
ald of  peace  be  received  by  a  rebellious  province,  if  he 
brought  tidings  of  pardon  by  the  intervention  of  the  only 
begotten  Son  of  the  offended  Monarch. 

And  what  is  the  state  of  man?  Is  he  not  a  dying  crea- 
ture? Is  he  not  wandering  in  the  darkness  of  this  world? 
Is  he  not  the  sport  of  folly,  prejudice,  concupiscence?  Can 
he  do  any  thing  to  deliver  himself?  How  does  a  traveller 
perishing  in  a  desert,  seize  the  hand  of  a  deliverer?  How 
does  the  father  of  a  family,  roused  by  the  guardian  of  the 
night,  act  upon  the  testimony  of  the  instant  danger  of  con- 
flagration and  death? 

Such,  then,  must  be  the  nature  of  the  faith  by  which  we 
receive  the  Revelation  of  the  great  God.     A  lifeless,  tame, 


LECT.    XXIII.]        EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  289 

unmeaning  assent  will  avail  us  nothing,  but  to  mock  God 
and  increase  our  condemnation.  It  is  essentially  unbelief — 
it  is  the  same  state  of  heart  as  infidelity  itself. 

But  how  far  do  the  statements  of  Scripture  support  this 
representation.'*  What  is  the  nature  of  faith  as  expressed  in 
the  language  of  Revelation  itself.''  Every  step  in  our 
remarks  is  fully  sustained.  The  principle  on  which  faith  in 
Christianity  is  to  rest,  is  that  on  which,  as  we  have  observed, 
men  are  daily  acting;  If  we  receive  the  witness  of  men,  the  wit- 
ness of  God  is  greater.  The  state  of  mind  which  rejects  the 
testimony,  is  represented  as  a  distrust  of  God's  declarations 
and  a  virtual  imputation  of  falsehood  on  his  express  com- 
munications; He  that  bditvcth  not  God,  hath  made  him  a  liar. 
The  repose  and  affiance  which  faith  involves,  is  expressed 
by  an  allusion  to  the  custom  of  affixing  a  seal  to  what  we 
most  surely  credit;  He  that  hath  received  his  testimony,  hath 
set  to  his  seal  that  God  is  true.  The  necessity  of  the  heart 
and  affections  being  engaged  in  it,  is  strongly  insisted  on; 
If  thou  Oelievest  with  all  thine  heart — JViih  the  heart  man  be- 
lieveth  unto  righteousness.  The  vivid  apprehensions  it  con- 
veys to  the  mind — the  link  it  forms  between  man  and  the 
invisible  things  promised,  is  also  stated;  JS'ow  faith  is  the  sub- 
stance of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen.  Its 
more  immediate  reference  to  the  commanding  truth  of 
redemption  in  Jesus  Christ,  is  perpetually  held  forth;  This 
is  the  record  that  God  hath  given  us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is 
in  his  Son.  The  insufficiency  of  a  mere  barren  assent,  as 
opposed  to  this  heartfelt  and  living  principle,  is  awfully 
illustrated  by  the  case  of  the  fallen  spirits;  The  Df:viLs 
ALSO  BELIEVE  and  tremblk.  The  gracc  necessary  to  fallen 
man  in  order  tiiat  he  may  heartily  believe,  is  strongly  stated, 
both  as  to  the  perception  of  the  testimony  which  is  the  ob- 
ject of  faith,  and  as  to  the  state  of  mind  from  which 
faith  springs;  The  natural  man  reccivcth  not  the  things  of  the 
Sfjirit  of  God;  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him,  neither  can  he 
know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned.  Jls  many  as 
received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God, 
even  to  ihem  that  believe  in  his  name;  which  were  born,  not  of 
37 


290  LECTURES  ON  THE       [lECT.  XXIU. 

blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  Jlesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but 
of  God.^ 

The  first  thing,  then,  which  man  has  to  do  after  he  has 
examined  the  Evidences  of  Divine  Revelation,  is  to  implore 
of  God  a  right  disposition  to  belicve-T-to  seek  the  aid  of  his 
Holy  Spirit — to  beg  of  God  to  lift  up  the  natural  faith  or 
capacity  of  believing,  which,  as  an  old  writer  speaks,*  lies 
in  the  rubbish  of  the  fall,  is  centered  on  the  creature,  can 
discern  and  repose  on  human  testimony,  but  shrinks  and 
hesitates  about  divine;  which  cannot  see  spiritual  things, 
nor  raise  itself  up  to  the  communications  of  the  Creator — 
to  lift  up  this  natural  believing  faculty  and  make  it  capable 
of  tlie  eftort  of  obedience  to  the  Scriptures. 

But  let  us  consider, 

II.     The  reasonableness  of  our  being  called  on  for 

SUCH  A  FAITH,  AFTER  HAVING  ADMITTED  THE  DIVINE  AUTHOR- 
ITY OF  Christianity. 

For  it  is  nothing  but  the  resigning  and  making  over  the 
understanding  and  heart  to  God,  after  being  convinced  that 
he  has  condescended  to  speak  to  us.  And  what  can  be  so 
perfectly  agreeable  to  the  dictates  of  right  reason?  The 
favorite  attempt  of  infidelity  to  oppose  reason  to  faith,  will 
be  found  to  be  a  mere  stratagem.  Faith  is  itself  an  exer- 
cise of  reason  in  concurrence  with  the  affections,  upon  the 
strongest  grounds  on  wliich  an  accountable  being  can  act. 
Faith  is  so  far,  therefore,  from  extinguishing  or  opposing 
reason,  that  it  elevates,  establishes,  purifies  it,  gives  it  new 
materials,  and  employs  it  for  new  purposes.  It  is  reason 
which  conducts  us  to  revelation,  and  opens  to  us  the  door 
of  the  divine  sanctuary,  there  it  commits  us  to  the  arms  of 
faith,  leaves  us  under  her  empire,  and  attends  us  afterwards 
only  as  a  subordinate  minister.  Guided  by  reason,  I  dis- 
cover that  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles  have  apjieared  on 
earth,  and  have  given  manifest  proofs  of  their  divine  mis- 
sion. I  have  for  these  facts,  the  same  kind  of  certainty  as 
as  I  have  for   the  existence  of  Caesar  and  his  conquests   in 

(<1)  John  V.  9—12.    John  iii.  33.     Acts  viii.    37.     Rom.  x.  10.     Hebrews  xi.  1. 
James  ii.  ID.     1  Cor.  ii.  14.     John  i.  12,  13. 
(e)  Polhill. 


LECT.  XXIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  291 

Gaul,  or  any  other  events  in  liistory,  of  which  no  human 
being  ever  doubted.  Upon  these,  the  e.xaniination  of  tlie 
Christian  is  fixed.  These  facts  reason  discusses  and  searches 
to  the  bottom.  But  when  she  is  once  convinced  of  the 
divine  authority  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles,  this  same 
reason  commands  him  imperiously  to  submit  himself  to  that 
teaching,  and  to  abase  his  feeble  understanding  before  the 
supreme  intelligence.*^ 

The  question  here  divides  itself  into  two  branches,  the 
submission  of  the  sou!  to  the  discoveries  of  Revelation,  and 
the  necessity  of  divine  assistance,  in  order  to  do  this;  and 
the  reasonableness  of  both  will  be  most  evident  on  the  foot- 
ing of  the  very  Christianity  which  enjoins  them. 

I.  F(»r,  as  to  the  Disc()VERit:s  of  the  Christian  relig- 
ion, the  obvious  dictate  of  conscience  is,  that  man  should 
unreservedly  bow  to  what  God  is  pleased  to  reveal — this, 
and  this  only,  is  the  right,  the  reasonable  course. 

"What  is  reasoning,  or  a  number  of  propositions  consecu- 
tive in  a  certain  order,"  says  the  latest  of  our  moral  philo- 
sophers,^ on  a  subject  not  at  all  relating  to  religion,  and 
therefore  the  more  free  from  the  suspicion  of  partiality — 
"but  a  continued  series  of  analytical  operations,  developing 
the  elements  of  our  thoughts.  In  every  proposition,  that 
which  is  concluded  is  a  part  of  that  of  which  it  is  affirmed. 
The  chymist  analyses  the  substances  about  us;  he  may  give 
them  new  names,  or  detect  in  them  new  elements,  but  he 
cannot  change  their  nature.  In  reasoning  there  is  a  similar 
analysis,  which  presents  to  us  the  elements  of  our  own  for- 
mer conceptions.  Reasoning,  if  at  all  intelligible,  must 
begin  with  some  conception  already  familiar  to  us,  in  which 
it  asserts  something  to  be  contained,  and  proceeds  only  to 
trace  similar  relations.  A  new  truth  of  this  kind  is  not  so 
much  added  to  us,  as  evolved  from  the  primary  truth  already 
familiar.  It  is  not  as  if  new  objects  were  presented  to  us 
to  be  seen,  but  as  if  our  intellectual  senses  were  quickened 
and  rendered  more  acute,  so  as  to  perceive  clearly  what  we 
saw  dimly,  or  not  even  dimly,  before;  though  we  might  have 

{0  Frassynons.  (g)  Dr.  Thomas  Brown. 


292  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXIII. 

seen  it  as  now,  if  we  had  not  been  too  dull  of  vision  to  per- 
ceive what  was  in  our  hands." 

What,  then,  has  reason  to  say,  when  Divine  Revelation, 
throws  in  new  materials,  brings  to  liglit  new  facts,  discovers 
new  relations  in  which  we  stand,  erects  a  new  standard  of 
sin  and  holiness,  makes  known  to  us  new  dangers,  and  calls 
us  to  new  duties?  Her  prcnince  is  widened.  She  has  to 
set  to  work  on  the  new  truths  brought  to  her  knowledge,  and 
to  control  the  conclusions  and  practical  judgments  de- 
duced from  her  previous  narrow  and  penurious  stock,  by  the 
enlarged  furniture  and  elements  now  before  her.  Her  office 
being  not  to  supply  the  mind  with  ideas,  but  to  Judge  of 
the  agreement  or  disagreement  between  those  already  re- 
ceived, it  can  of  course  only  exercise  itself  upon  such  ele- 
ments as  are  before  it.  Men  reason,  not  only  in  proportion 
to  the  strength  of  their  reasoning  faculties,  but  to  the  store 
of  materials  laid  in  to  reason  upon,  and  the  degree  of  care 
bestowed  in  training  up  their  several  faculties  to  the  habit 
or  art  of  perceiving,  recollecting  inferring.  Shut  up  all  the 
senses,  reason  cannot  exert  herself  for  want  of  materials;  open 
one  sense,  and  she  can  work  on  the  ideas  of  that  class  and 
no  other.  Ojjen  a  second,  and  her  sphere  is  enlarged,  and 
she  expatiates  in  a  new  field  of  knowledge.''     When  Reve- 

(h)  Deism  revealed. 

The  laie  Bishop  of  Calcuita,  Dr.  James,  illuslrates  in  a  lively  manner  ihc  instant 
change  in  all  our  grounds  of  reasoning,  which  new  (acts  or  new  information  may 
occasion. 

One  single  new  fact,  one  single  new  principle,  may  throw  light  on  a  whole  class  of 
difficulties.  There  may  be  periods  of  Christianity  coming  on  which  may  unveil 
much  that  is  now  dark  and  perplexing.  What  do  we  know  of  God's  mind?  What 
does  a  subject  of  an  earthly  prince  know  of  that  human  prince's  mind? 

"Let  us  ask  whether  the  sheep  that  is  folded  and  tended  with  so  much  care,  can 
possibly  divine  the  real  cause  of  all  that  is  done  by  man  with  regard  to  his  welfare. 
If  we  were  to  suppose  the  animal  gifted  wiih  a  certain  degree  of  sagacity,  we  may 
imagine  it  might  possibly  arrive  at  certain  conclusions;  it  might  conjecture  from  see- 
ing the  fate  of  its  fellow-creaturos.thal  it^^elf  was  only  reserved  lo  be  killed  hereafter 
that  it  was  served  with  additional  food,  only  to  make  its  carcase  larger  when  killed- 
bum  never  could  discover  that  its  flesh  was  designed  only  for  ihe  food  of  man,  or 
that  the  candle  in  the  shepherd's  lanthorn  was  made  from  sheep's  fat,  or  his  coat  from 
its  wool.  Suppose,  however,  another  event.  Let  a  man  come  and  remove  this 
sheep  from  the  pasture  where  it  grazed  to  other  pastures;  a  circumstance  ihat,  as  far 
as  it  had  any  observation  of  such  matters,  might  have  happened  often  before,  with- 
out any  material  consequence  having  been  the  result.  Yet  it  might  happen  Uiat  the 
man  was  a  thief,  and  the  act  of  removal  an  act  of  feioDy,  and  the  man  to  be  put  to 


LECT.    XXin.J  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 


293 


lation  then  comes  in,  it  is  like  opening  a  new  sense  to  man. 
He  discerns  a  ne.v  world.  He  finds  that  he  stands  in  new 
relations  to  God— that  new  facts  have  taken  place,  and  new 
duties  are  imposed  on  him. 

So  that  we  may  say  with  Mr.  Locke,  that  "reason  is  nat- 
ural revelation,  whereby  the  eternal  Father  of  light  and 
fountain  of  all  knowledge,  communicates  to  mankind  that 
portion  of  truth  which  he  has  laid  within  the  reach  of  our 
faculties.  Revelation  is  natural  religion  enlarged,  and  a 
new  set  of  discoveries  cornintmicated  immediately  by  God, 
which  reason  vouches  the  truth  of,  by  the  testimony  and 
proof  it  gives  that  they  came  from  God." 

To  appeal,  then,  to  the  moral  sense  or  to  conscience,  as 
affording  any  thing  like  a  ground  of  objection  to  the  mat- 
ter of  Christianity,  '\i  to  overthrow  all  the  authority  of  Rev- 
elation. "Conscience  and  reason,  or  that  modification  of  it, 
which  we  call  the  moral  sense,  do  not  furnish  laws  which  we 
should  obey,  but  point  out  when  we  agree  with  that  rule  of 
action  which  had  previously  been  established  as  our  guide; 
whether  liiat  rule  be  the  law  of  tlie  land,  or  the  precepts  of 
a  particular  philos()|)hy,  or  the  customs  of  society,  or  the 
commands  of  God.  Reason  and  conscience  are  casuists; 
Revelation  alone  is  the  law."' 

The  believer,  then,  reasons  from  the  Bible,  as  from  self- 
evident  truths.  When  men  say  that  they  can  believe  noth- 
ing that  is  unreasonable,  we  agree  with  them — but  the 
question  is,  what  is  unreasonable.''  If  God  gives  us  a  Rev- 
elation of  his  will,  it  is  most  reasonable  for  me  to  believe 
the  things  contained  in  it,  though  I  may  not  understand 
them  in  all  their  parts.  To  object  to  the  unreasonableness 
of  this  or  that  fact,  this  or  that  doctrine,  as  unbelievers  com- 
monly do,  is  to  suppress  the  main  step  in  the  argument — 
the  Revelation    whicii  intervenes — if  there  were  no  Revela- 

deaili  in  consequence.  Now  if  the  sheep  could  reason  with  ever  so  mucli  sagacity, 
yet  from  the  data  wliich  alone  would  have  afforded  it,  it  could  never  arrive  at  any 
just  conclusion  in  such  a  case;  for  thouo^h  the  act  concerned  itself,  yet  it  referred  to 
principles  of  which  it  was  not  only  ignorant  but  with  which  it  was  wholly  unconnect- 
ed."— .Semi-Sceptic,  p.  65. 
(i)  Bishop  John  Bird  Sumner. 


294  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXIIl. 

tion,  to  believe  certain  things  might  be  just  as  absurd,  as  it 
is  now  fit  and  becominii,  because  we  receive  them  on  the 
authority  of  a  divine  religion. 

"Having  now,"  says  the  greatest  master  of  reason  per- 
haps, which  our  country  ever  saw,  "with  our  small  bark  of 
knowledge,  sailed  over  and  surrounded  the  globe  of  the 
sciences,  as  well  the  Old  World  as  the  New,  there  is  another 
part  to  be  viewed,  inspired  theology,  to  survey  which,  we 
must  quit  the  small  vessel  of  human  reason,  and  put  our- 
selves on  board  the  ship  of  the  church,  which  alone  pos- 
sesses the  divine  needle  for  justly  shaping  our  course 

If  we  should  believe  only  such  things  as  are  agreeable  to 
our  reason,  we  assent  to  the  matter  and  not  to  the  author; 
and  therefore  the  more  absurd  and  incredible  any  divine 
mysteries  are,  so  much  the  greater  honor  do  we  do  to  God 
in  believing  them,  and  so  much  the  more  noble  the  victory 
of  faith."  J 

2.     But  we  have  dwelt  too  long  on  this  topic.     We  pass 

to  the   NECESSITY  OF  DIVINE   AID   IN   ORDER  TO  BELIEVE  ARIGHT 

— the  reasonableness  of  which  rests  on  the  same  footing  of 
the  authority  of  the  Revelation.  For  if  I  am  to  submit 
myself  unreservedly  to  the  divine  discoveries  of  it,  I  am  most 
of  all  to  submit  to  those  declarations  of  human  depravity, 
and  of  the  need  of  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  without 
which,  all  the  other  parts  of  the  record  will  be  of  little  avail 
to  me.  The  same  book  which  calls  me  to  believe,  tells  me 
that  I  am  a  corrupt,  perverse,  prejudiced  creature;  and  that 
true  Aiith  is  the  gift  and  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  I  am 
bound,  then,  to  submit  to  this  statement,  and  implore  the 
proffered  grace.  Till  this  healing  influence  restores  the 
moral  frame,  no  real  and  vital  trust  in  the  peculiar  truths 
of  Christianity  can  be  exercised.  "The  man  is  at  a  loss 
for  the  simple  conceptions  which  are  the  materials  of  the 
argument  of  which  Revelation  treats.  It  is  not  in  the  power 
of  reasoning  to  supply  those  ideas  themselves.  Reasoning 
cannot  create  the  primary  elements  of  the  question.  It  can 
only  cement  them  together."  ^ 

0)  Lord  BacoiT.  (k)  Chalmers. 


LECT.    XXm.]  EVIDENCES    OF     CHRISTIANITY.  295 

Nothing,  then,  is  so  reasonable  as  to  follow  the  divine  di- 
rections, and  seek  for  grace  to  produce  the  faith  to  which 
Revelation  addresses  itself.  Nor  can  any  thing  be  more 
becoming  man,  more  agreeable  to  his  accountable  and  im- 
mortal being,  more  dignified  and  elevating  to  his  intellect- 
ual nature,  than  to  bow  implicitly  to  God,  and  receive  all 
his  will  with  the  silence  and  submission  of  conscious  ignor- 
ance and  guilt.  To  act  otherwise,  is  acting  the  most  un- 
reasonable, as  well  as  the  most  rebellious  part;  for  unless 
men  pray  humbly  for  a  vigorous  and  living  faith,  they  will 
find  a  way  of  believing  only  so  much  of  the  Bible  as  they 
please.  Their  reason  remains  under  the  tyranny  of  the  pas- 
sions. Instead  of  being  the  governing  faculty  in  the  rnind, 
she  is  like  a  weak  eastern  prince,  dethroned  by  her  usurp- 
ing subjects,  and  that  on  account  of  her  inability  to  enforce 
her  dictates;  so  that  for  once  that  she  issues  any  orders  of 
her  own,  she  is  a  thousand  times  ejther  coaxed  or  com- 
pelled to  lend  her  name  and  authority,  as  Prince  Henry  III. 
when  in  the  hands  of  Montfort  and  the  Barons,  to  the  great- 
est extravagancies  and  crimes.' 

And,  indeed,  where  the  question  of  the  Evidences  of 
Christianity  has  been  candidly  examined,  the  very  same 
temper  of  mind  which  led  to  a  fair  balancing  of  testimonies 
in  every  step  of  the  argument,  will  go  on  to  operate  when 
the  truth  of  Christianity  is  established.  It  will  examine 
what  the  faith  is  with  wiiich  the  religion  is  to  be  received; 
it  will  perceive  the  difference  between  a  speculative  assent, 
and  a  cordial  and  thorough  belief  in  the  matters  of  Revela- 
tion; and  when  it  discerns  the  reasonableness  of  exercising 
such  u  trust,  it  will  discern  also  the  fitness  of  submitting  to 
God's  directions  as  to  the  manner  of  attaining  it;  and  finding 
it  is  described  as  the  gift  of  God,  it  will  pray  and  earnestly 
seek  for  the  communication  of  the  gift  from  the  source  of 
all  light  and  grace. 

In  fact,  it  is  highly  reasonable  for  man,  in  every  impor- 
tant undertaking,  and  therefore  most  of  all  in  the  recep- 
tion of  Christianity,  to  be  dependent  on  God,  to  feel  his 

(1)  Deism  Revealed. 


296  LKCTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIII. 

weakness  and  ignorance,  and  to  rely  on  divine  aid.  Even 
natural  religion  teaches  us  man's  feebleness.  Revelation 
opens  that  disease  to  the  bottom.  Rexelaiion  proceeds  on 
the  fall  and  corruption  of  man.  Revelation  declares  tliat 
faith  must  be  a  living  principle,  operating  upon  the  whole 
soul.  Revelation  pronounces  the  Holy  Ghost  to  be  the 
divine  agent  who  produces  such  a  faith.  And  nothing  can 
be  so  clear  as  the  reasonableness  of  all  this;  the  first  step 
in  the  argument  being  granted,  that  the  Revelation  requir- 
ing this  faith  and  promising  this  grace  which  produces  it, 
has  come  from  God. 

But  let  us  consider,  as  we  proposed, 

III.   The  extent  to  which,  fhom  the  nmture  of  the 

CASE,    FAITH    SHOULD    BE    CARRIED. 

For  the  case  is  this.  We  receive  a  Revelation  from 
Almighty  God  with  a  heartfelt  repose  and  acquiescence  in 
the  divine  testimony.  We  do  this  cheerfully  as  the  most 
reasonable  and  becoming  act  of  an  accountable  being  to  its 
Creator  revealing  his  will.  We  seek  the  grace  necessary 
for  believing  aright.  Then  surely  the  utmost  care  is  neces- 
sary not  to  go  beyond,  nor  stop  short  in  a  concern  of  such 
importance.  We  must  be  much  on  our  guard  not  to  add  to, 
nor  diminish  from,  the  testimony  on  which  our  faith  rests. 
We  must  be  watchful  not  to  impose  our  opinions  or  errors 
on  the  divine  record.  For  in  proportion  as  faith  resigns  us 
unreservedly  to  the  directions  of  Christianity,  we  must  see 
that  it  be  indeed  to  Christianity  that  we  thus  yield  up  our 
whole  understanding  and  heart.  This  is  demanded  by  the 
very  nature  of  the  case. 

We  travel  an  unknown  road;  dangers  beset  us  on  all 
hands;  precipices,  and  morasses,  and  bye-paths  present 
themselves.  We  have  an  unerring  guide;  but  then  we 
must  follow  sedulously  his  conduct.  We  must  not  overrun, 
not  linger  behind,  not  start  on  either  side  of  the  path 
wherein  he  leads  us. 

If  the  case  were  different;  if  we  were  on  our  own  bottom, 
or  treating  a  subject  of  human  cognizance,  or  temporary 
interest,  errors  would  be  of  less  moment;  but  in  a  divine 
Revelation,  where  we  know  nothing  but  what  we  are  taught 


LECT.  XXIII.],         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  297 

— where  much  is  new,  mysterious,  sublime,  incomprehensi- 
ble, we  cannot  act  too  warily. 

The  extent,  then,  to  which  faith  must  be  carried,  is  such 
as  to  embrace  all  the  parts  of  the  Bible;  to  give  to  each  its 
relative  importance;  to  stop,  with  minute  and  watchful  con- 
scientiousness, where  the  Revelation  stops;  and  to  express 
ourselves  as  much  as  possible  in  the  very  words  of  the 
divinely-inspired  volume. 

1.  We  must  extend  our  faith  to  eveky  part  of  the 
Revelation  made  to  us  by  Almighty  God,  not  excepting 
any,  but  considering  the  whole  entire  book  as  one  complete 
communication  made  by  God  to  man,  for  the  most  impor- 
tant purposes.  We  are  to  explore  the  Scriptures  as  a  mine 
of  precious  ore,  where  the  vein  runs  in  every  direction,  and 
where  a  new  source  of  riches  opens  continually  on  every 
side,  and  when  we  least  expect  it. 

We  are  not  merely  to  believe,  with  a  general  faith,  in  all 
that  the  Scripture  reveals,  without  entering  into  detail,  or 
understanding  the  particular  truths  of  which  it  consists;  but 
we  are  to  pursue  out  the  subject,  and  go  into  all  its  ramifi- 
cations, and  believe  explicitly  in  each  part  of  the  matter  of 
Revelation. 

The  Scriptures  relate  facts  which  God  has  confirmed; 
they  contain  doctrines  which  God  has  immediately  inspired; 
they  hold  forth  promises  and  assurances  concerning  the 
future,  which  God  has  engaged  to  accomplish;  they  lay 
down  rules  of  conduct,  which  God  has  prescribed;  they 
make  discoveries  of  mysteries  in  the  divine  nature,  and  will, 
and  purposes,  and  operations,  which  God  has  been  pleased 
to  attest.  They  contain  sanctions  and  threatenings,  which 
God  has  seen  fit  to  pronounce. 

These  various  elements  of  truth,  are  partly  involved  in 
the  history  of  the  patriarchal  age,  in  the  lives  of  saints  and 
prophets,  in  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  Jewish  nation, 
and  in  the  series  of  tlie  history  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and 
Judah;  and  they  are  partly  found  in  the  divine  poems  and 
psalms,  indited  by  inspired  men.  Many  truths,  again,  are 
conveyed  in  the  types  and  ceremonies  of  the  law;  and  others 
in  the  discourses  of  the  prophets.  Then,  the  gospels  con- 
38 


298  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXIII. 

tain  large  portions  of  truth;  and  the  acts  of  the  apostles, 
and  the  epistles,  yet  larger,  being  the  final  dcvclopement  of 
the  Revelation.  Now  faith  marches  through  the  whole  land, 
and  sees  what  are  the  truths  communicated  in  each  part  of 
the  Revelation. 

Faith  regards  the  perfections  of  God,  his  righteousness, 
his  law,  his  government,  his  decrees;  the  creation  of  the 
world,  the  entrance  of  sin  and  misery,  the  fall  of  man,  the 
evil  and  desert  of  sin,  the  deceitfulness  and  wickedness  of 
the  human  heart,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  an  eternal 
state  of  happiness  and  misery. 

Faith  especially  regards  the  testimony  of  God  concerning 
his  Son.  It  respects  the  exceeding  great  and  precious 
promises  made  in  him;  and  the  blessings  of  pardon,  justifi- 
cation, adoption  into  God's  family,  the  grace  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  the  hope  of  everlasting  life,  which  are  bestowed 
as  the  purchase  of  his  death. 

Faith  becomes  also  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for^  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen;^^  it  penetrates  the  invisible  world, 
lays  heaven  and  hell  open  to  our  view,  contemplates  the 
hosts  of  good  and  evil  spirits,  with  which  we  are  surrounded, 
and  looks  forward  to  eternity  and  the  day  of  judgment,  as 
just  at  hand.  These  are  merely  some  capital  points;  but 
faith  receives  every  subordinate  one  also,  and  omits  nothing 
that  God  has  thought  fit  to  communicate. 

2.  But  not  only  so:  this  principle  of  faith  gives  to  every 
part  of  Revelation  the  relative  importance  which  it  finds 
assigned  to  it.  There  is  an  analogy,  a  harmony,  a  propor- 
tion, in  the  divine  truths.  They  compose  a  whole;  they 
are  united  with  each  other;  they  spring  one  from  another, 
as  we  have  frequently  observed;  they  are  revealed  for  cer- 
tain purposes,  with  certain  limitations,  and  in  connexion  with 
certain  preceding  and  following  truths.  Faith  regards  not 
only  the  doctrine,  but  the  manner  in  which  it  is  communi- 
cated, the  frequency  of  its  occurrence,  the  use  to  which  it 
is  applied,  the  proportion  in  which  its  several  parts  stand  to 
each  other. 

(in)  1I.-I.,  xi.  1. 


LECT.    XXIII.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  299 

The  more  we  examine  Scripture,  the   more   we   find  that 
its  instructions  are  not  all  of  equal  importance  to  us,  tliou'di 
none  are  unimportant;  and  we  must  determine,  from  Scrip- 
ture   itself,  what   is    important,  and    what    less   so.     Some 
truths    are    more    obvious,    more    elementary    than    others. 
Some  are   primary,  if  you  regard  them  as  in  God;  but  sec- 
ondary and   matters   of  inference,  if  you  regard    them   as 
affecting  man.     Some  are   suited  to  one  age  of  life  and  one 
degree  of  progress,  and  some  to  another.     Therefore  all  is 
to  be   reverenced,  followed,  obeyed,  in   proportion   as    it   is 
more  or  less  applicable  to  our  own  circumstances  and  duties. 
The   moment  we  gather   any  principle    from  Revelation, 
and  find  it  recurring  through  the  Scriptures — for  example 
the  infinite  evil  of  sin — we  are  to  admit  it  as  a  principle  in 
all  our  other  studies  of  the  divine  book. 

The  moment  we  find  any  fact  declared  to  be  of  a  com- 
manding nature,  and  to  influence  all  the  Revelation — for 
instance,  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God — we  are  to 
give  it  its  position  in  all  our  conceptions  of  truth. 

Tiie  moment  we  find  any  doctrine  explicitly  declared  in 
the  last  and  concluding  part  of  the  Revelation,  the  apos- 
tolic epistles,  to  be  the  leading  doctrine  of  the  whole  gos- 
pel— for  example,  the  cross  and  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  justification  which  is  by  faith  in  his  obedience  unto 
death — we  are  to  give  it  tiic  like  prominence,  and  let  all 
other  truths  be  ranged  around  it,  and  illustrate  it. 

The  moment  we  find  any  state  of  mind  and  temper  to  be 
characteristic  of  the  evangelical  dispensation — charity,  for 
instance — we  are  to  give  it  that  prominent  station. 

Thus  faith  rightly  divir/es  the  word  of  truth;  "  places  every 
thing  in  its  j)lace;  not  only  follows  Revelation  in  the  detail, 
but  in  the  disposition  and  relative  importance  of  its  con- 
tents. 

3.    But,  more   than  this,  faith   stops,  with  minute  and 

WATCHFUL       CONSCIKNTIOUSNKSS,     WHERE     THE      ReveI.ATION 

STOPS.  Though  it  may  think  other  truths  follow  from  those 
revealed,  yet  it  attributes  not  the  same  authority  to  those 
deductions,  which  it  assigns  to  the  revealed  doctrines  thcm- 

(n)  2  Tim.  ii.  15. 


300  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIII, 

selves.  The  Christian  must  draw  inferences;  he  must  bring 
out  conclusions  from  premises,  where  the  premises  are 
strong  and  clear;  but  if  the  premises  are  in  the  Bible,  and 
the  inference  not,  he  considers  the  one  of  divine,  the  other 
of  human,  authority.  He  treads  with  such  awe  on  tiie  un- 
known land,  that  he  dares  not  venture  beyond  what  God 
has  explicitly  revealed.  He  knows  not  what  may  be  in- 
volved in  a  single  step  beyond  the  record. 

Every  thing  is  relative  in  the  world,  and  in  the  holy 
Scriptures,  corresponding  with  our  faculties,  and  answer- 
ing the  divine  purposes  in  the  government  of  man.  Cer- 
tain impressions  are  made  upon  us,  according  to  our  facul- 
ties; not  with  reference  to  the  essences  and  qualities  of 
things,  but  to  what  they  are  with  respect  to  us,  and  the 
impression  they  make  upon  us.  All  objects  strike  our  organs 
of  sense,  and  speak  to  us  in  that  language;  which  is  the 
only  one  we  can  understand.  God  is  pleased  to  address 
us  in  the  same  manner.  If  men  were  constructed  differ- 
ently, objects  would  make  a  different  impression  on  us. 
Quicquid  recipitur,  recipitur  modo  recipientis.  We  have 
no  right  to  demand  information  as  to  the  essences  of  things, 
which  God  conceals.  God  represents  himself  to  us  accord- 
ing to  the  relations  in  human  life,  with  which  we  are  acquaint- 
ed, as  Judge,  Rewardcr,  Guide,  Father,  Deliverer,  Benefactor. 
The  truths  in  Scripture,  tliercfore,  are  to  be  minutely  and 
exactly  followed,  as  they  are  there  revealed,  without  super- 
addition  or  subtraction.  The  divinity  of  Christ,  the  atone- 
ment of  his  deatii,  the  person  and  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
faith  receives  as  trutlis  contained  in  the  Scriptures,  though 
we  cannot  comprehend  tliom.  But  what  do  we  compre- 
hend? The  being  and  attributes  of  God.^^  Infinity.''  Faith, 
therefore,  keeps  closely  to  the  limits  of  the  divine  manifest- 
ation. 

This  point  is  of  the  last  moment.  Much  concerning  the 
fall  of  man,  the  decrees  and  purposes  of  God,  the  opera- 
lions  of  grace,  are  of  a  nature  to  demand  constant  caution, 
lest  human  reasoning  should  attribute  to  its  own  inferences, 
the  authority  which  belongs  only  to  the  divinely  inspired 
premises.     The   inferences  may  be  right  or  wrong.     They 


LECT.    XXni.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  301 

arc   not   in   the   record;  and   faith,  therefore,  insists  not  on 
thctn  as  divine. 

The  progress  of  true  faith  in  the  present  day  very  much 
appears,. in  its  following  more  simply  the  several  parts  of 
the  divine  word,  without  attempting  to  deduce  inferences, 
or  frame  systems  from  them.  In  religion,  as  in  natural 
philosophy,  men  must  be  students  and  inquirers.  Formerly 
they  made  hypotheses  about  the  laws  of  nature;  they  thought 
they  understood  the  essences  of  things.  At  length  they 
acknowledge  they  know  nothing  beyond  the  phenomena. 

Now,  in  Christianity,  the  declarations  of  the  Bible  are 
our  phenomena,  our  first  principles.  As  faith  is  more  simple, 
it  acknf)wledges  it  knows  as  little  of  God  and  his  will  and 
counsels,  abstractedly  and  hypothetically  and  universally,  as 
we  profess  is  the  case  with  regard  to  his  works.  Faith  con- 
fines herself  to  the  record,  and  stops  where  that  stops. 

Still,  as  in  philosophy,  axioms  are  framed,  laws  of  philos- 
ophising laid  down,  principles  adopted,  facts  accumulated, 
generalized,  and  established  as  maxims  of  natural  science; 
so  in  the  Bible  faith  has  found  her  axioms,  her  laws,  her 
principles,  her  facts. 

But,  as  in  natural  philosophy,  these  are  always  referable 
to  first  principles,  and  every  thing  is  tried  and  examined  by 
them;  so  is  it  in  religion.  The  Bible  is  still  our  standard; 
and  every  thing  there  found  is  a  part  of  those  first  princi- 
ples to  which  all  subsc(iuent  advances  must  be  referred. 

And  as  there  are  discoveries  made  in  the  natural  world, 
by  cautious  observation  and  simple  obedience  to  fact  and 
experiment;  so,  in  the  Bible,  faith,  by  the  same  means, 
makes  continual  discoveries;  not,  indeed,  in  the  great  fea- 
tures of  truth — for  those  rest  upon  a  few  facts,  expounded 
by  a  few  main  doctrines — but  in  the  detail,  the  application, 
the  effects,  and  use  of  truth. 

4.  And  this  leads  the  Christian  to  follow,  as  much  as 
possiBLK,  THK  LANGUAGK,  as  wcIl  as  the  scntimcuts  of  the 
holy  Scriptures.  The  disposition  to  acquiesce  in  God's 
Revelation  is  so  entire,  and  the  fear  of  overstepping  the 
limits  of  the  record  is  so  wakeful,  that  the  true  Christian 
naturally  and    almost    necessarily  adopts  the  expressions, 


302  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXUl. 

delights  in  the  phraseology,  employs  in  preference  the  words, 
and  appeals  perpetually  to  the  authority  of  the  sacred  word. 
The  Bible  is  a  book  by  itself  >  Its  sanctity,  its  new  and 
heavenly  doctrines,  the  inspiration  under  which  it  was  writ- 
ten, invest  it  with  a  peculiarity  which  no  human  wisdom 
can  imitate.  It  has  been  uniformly  found,  that  when  the 
faith  of  the  church  has  declined,  the  language  of  Scripture 
has  become  neglected.  The  Bible  was  seldom  cited  during 
the  dark  ages.  At  the  Reformation  the  use  of  its  terms 
and  expressions  revived  with  a  love  for  its  main  doctrines. 

In  fact,  the  Revelation  itself  provides  for  this.  The 
apostles  oppose  the  wisdom  of  God  to  the  wisdom  of  men, 
and  the  words  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  those  of  human  inven- 
tion. Which  things  also  ive  speak,  not  in  the  words  which 
mail's  wisdom  teacheth,  but  ivhich  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth,  com- 
paring spiritual  things  with  spiritual."  The  same  direction  is 
involved  in  the  commands  to  search  the  Scriptures,  to  hide 
them  in  our  heart,  to  make  them  our  counsellors,  to  meditate 
therein  day  and  night,  to  delight  in  them  above  gold  and  pre- 
cious stones  to  account  them  sweeter  than  honey,  yea  than  the 
honeycomb,  to  rejoice  in  them  as  one  that  jindeth  great  spoil. 
He  that  does  this,  insensibly  adopts  their  manner  of  expres- 
sion, their  turn  of  thought,  their  way  of  stating  things;  his 
mind  is  cast  into  the  mould  of  the  Bible,  and  he  labors  to 
receive  more  and  more  its  exact  form  and  impress. 

Such,  then,  being  the  nature,  reasonableness,  and  extent 
of  faith,  a  reflection  or  two  may  be  offered,  before  we  pro- 
ceed to  our  conclusion,  on  the  tranquillity  of  mind  which  it 
produces;  and  on  the  necessary  influence  it  exerts  on  the 
whole  life  of  a  Christian. 

1.  Observe  the    tuanquiij.ity  which  this  faith  produces. 
There  is  an  acquiescence  of  mind   in  divine  truth,  a  cheer- 
ful resignation  of  the  understanding  and  will  to  the  testi-. 
mony  of  God.     Thus  one  great   end   of  Revelation  is  at- 
tained. 

The  perturbation,  the  forebodings  of  conscience,  the  ap- 
prehension of  futurity,  the  dread  of  the  almighty  Arbiter  of 
the  universe,  the  uncertainty  of  human  opinion,  the  tossings 

(o)  1  Cor.  ii.  10. 


LECT.  XXIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  303 

and  tempests  of  conjecture  and  prejudice,  are  all  terminated. 
Faith  settles  every  thing.  The  truths  of  Scripture  are  as 
exactly  adapted  to  this  exercise  of  a  contrite  and  liun\ble 
mind,  as  the  light  of  heaven  is  to  the  natural  eye.  The 
same  divine  Spirit,  which  indited  the  Scriptures,  knew  what 
was  in  man,  and  disposes  his  heart  to  receive  what  is 
revealed.  The  result  is  a  tranquillity  of  soul,  arising  from  a 
correspondence  between  the  faculty  and  the  object.  Reli- 
ance on  the  inspired  Scriptures  brings  that  calm  joy,  which 
tlie  revelation  of  such  important  truths  might  be  expected 
to  produce. 

The  discovery  of  truth,  of  whatever  kind,  is  delightful  to 
man.i'  Mathematical  knowledge,  physical,  metaphysical, 
create  repose  in  a  certain  way,  from  the  pleasure  of  discov- 
ering what  is  new  and  useful  in  the  worlds  of  science.  But 
in  divine  truth  there  is  that  repose  which  springs  from  the 
impression  of  the  greatness  of  the  mercy  vouchsafed  in 
Revelation,  of  the  magnitude  of  the  truths  communicated 
both  in  themselves  and  to  man,  of  the  high  and  elevated 
and  purifying  effects  produced,  of  the  bright  and  cheerful 
hopes  awakened.  The  soul  attains  its  rest.  Faith  com- 
pletes the  noblest  instinct  in  man,  that  natural  pulse  which 
he  has  after  truth  and  happiness.  It  meets  his  inmost  wants, 
it  agrees  with  his  accountable  nature;  and  with  .all  his  pri- 
mary duties  to  Almighty  God.i  Faith  rectifies,  as  it  were, 
the  illusions  of  vision;  brings  forward  into  near  view  those 
eternal  things  which,  from  their  remoteness,  are  apt  to  be 
cither  wholly  overlooked  or  appear  but  faintly  in  the  utmost 
bounds  of  the  horizon;  and  removes  backward  and  reduces 
to  their  true  comparative  size  the  objects  of  the  present 
life,  which  are  apt  to  fill  the  human  eye  and  assume  a  false 
magnitude  from  their  vicinity.''  And  this  is  the  source  of 
tranquillity. 

Faith  especially  fixes  the  mind  on  one  grand  object,  in 
which  all  the  lines  of  revealed  truth  converge,  as  in  their 
centre,  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ:  and  thus  brings  us  to 

(p)  !■■»  logique  est  un  besoin  de  I'cspirt,  comme  la  religion  est  un  besoiii  de  Tame. 
— Frayssinous. 

(q)  Led.  xiv.  (r)  Wilberforce. 


304  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIII. 

the  fountain  of  felicity.  The  very  conviction  of  our  own 
ignorance  and  of  the  infinite  wisdom  and  truth  of  God,  pro- 
motes the  same  calmness  of  spirit.  I  am  in  a  dark  and  sin- 
ful world;  I  am  surrounded  with  mysteries;  but  my  heavenly 
Father  has  revealed  to  me  a  sufficient  guide;  things  are  all, 
practically  speaking,  well;  he  assures  me  all  shall  be  cleared 
up  in  a  future  world.  I  leave  them  with  him;  I  fullovv  by 
faith  in  the  track  of  j)atriarchs  and  prophets,  evangelists  and 
apostles;  my  mind  is  tranquil,  and  resigns  itself  to  God;  I 
give  over   conjecturing,  reasoning,  disputing,  in  order  to 

BELIEVE. 

2.  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  perceive    how   this   foith   is  the 

PRINCIPLE      OF      THE      CHRISTIAN    LIFE.        For     aS     tllC    CyC     rC- 

ceives  the  light  and  directs  the  whole  body,  so  faith,  the  eye 
of  the  soul,  receives  the  light  of  Revelation  and  directs  the 
life.  All  depends  upon  it.  Truth  operates  on  the  heart 
only  as  it  is  appropriated  by  this  principle.  We  wonder  not 
that  it  is  described  as  the  grace  which  apprehends  the  pro- 
mises of  Christ  for  justification,  which  works  in  a  way  of 
love  to  the  things  revealed,  which  overcomes  the  smiles  and 
frowns  of  the  world,  which  purifies  the  heart,  which  pro- 
duces uniform  and  cheerful  obedience.  It  cannot  be  other- 
wise. If  it  be  a  living  and  active  principle,  it  is  the  reli- 
ance of  an  enlightened  and  renewed  heart  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  Almighty  God;  and  every  act  of  it  excites  the  cor- 
respondent affections  and  produces  the  becoming  conduct. 
As  it  respects  the  testimony  of  God  in  Revelation  itself,  it  is 
the  first  link  of  union  between  truth  and  the  heart  of  man; 
as  it  respects  the  promises  of  forgiveness  in  a  Saviour,  it  is 
the  instrument  of  justification;'  as  it  regards  the  entire 
compass  of  truth  and  duty,  of  which  Christianity  consists,  it 
is  the  principle   of  the  whole  life   and  behavior;  as  it  looks 

(s)  The  act  of  failli  as  justifying,  and  juslifying  alone,  and  yd  as  standing,  in 
other  views,  in  connexion  with  the  whole  Christian  life,  has  been  tliiis  illustrated. 
While  the  poor  criminal,  who  lied  to  the  altar  for  refuge,  laid  hold  of  the  horns  of 
it  with  his  hands  alone,  his  heart  would  beat,  his  blood  circulate,  and  his  other  limbs 
and  senses  perform  their  proper  functions.  Thus  the  penitent  sinner  by  faith  alone 
lays  hold  of  Christ;  yet  his  soul  is  alive  to  God;  and  all  the  graces  of  the  Christian 
life  are  at  the  same  lime  exercised  according  to  their  proper  nature  and  functions. 


LECT.    XXIII.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  305 

forward  into  futurity,  it  is  the  parent  of  hope,  and  the  spring 
of  love,  patience,  enterprise. 

Let  ine,  then,  in  conclusion,  press  on  all  before  me  the 
importance  of  examining  themselves  whether  they  have  a 
lively  faith;  of  imploring  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
impart  to  them  tliis  blessing,  or  increase  it  if  they  already 
possess  it;  and  of  ever  retaining  that  humility  of  mind 
which  the  highest  degrees  of  it  are  best  calculated  to 
enforce. 

I.  Examine  YOTiu>;Er.vF,s,  my  young  friends,  whether  your 
faith  be  living  and  influential  or  not;  a  mistake  here  is  very 
common  and  most  destructive.  That  you  assent  to  the 
truth  of  Christianity  I  doubt  not.  That  you  are  in  some 
measure  impressed  with  the  force  of  the  evidences  which 
we  have  been  considering,  I  am  ready  to  admit.  That  you 
have  some  knowledge  of  the  main  doctrines  and  duties  of 
Revelation,  and  some  persuasion  of  the  importance  of  them, 
I  allow.  But,  I  ask,  is  your  faith  such  as  the  Scriptures 
describe  that  of  the  first  converts  to  have  becn.^  Does  it 
consist  of  those  elementary  qualities,  lead  to  those  feelings, 
produce  tliose  fruits,  issue  in  that  tranquillity  of  heart,  which 
it  did  in  the  apostolic  times?  Does  it  bring  not  only 
knowledge,  but  love;  not  only  assent,  but  persuasion;  not 
only  profession  in  words,  but  obedience  in  the  life  and  con- 
duct.^ 

Alas!  too  many  before  me  have,  I  fear,  no  true  faith. 
They  have  never  sought  for  it  by  fervent  prayer.  They 
have  never  appropriated  to  their  own  use  the  <rreat  truths 
of  Revelation.  They  have  never  seen  tiie  glory  and  reposed 
on  the  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God.  They  have  never  built 
on  him  as  the  sure  foundation  of  hope.  They  have  never 
looked  to  him,  as  the  bitten  Israelite  to  the  brazen  serpent, 
for  healing  and  life.  They  have  never  fled  to  iiim  as  the 
manslayer  fled  to  his  city  of  refuge.  They  have  never  sought 
deliverance  and  salvation  in  him,  as  Noah  entered  the  ark 
and  escaped  the  threatened  deluge.  Truth  lies  torpid  and 
inactive  in  their  understanding.  It  never  j)enelratcs  the 
soul,  never  rouses  to  exertion,  never  warms  with  love,  never 
39 


306  LECTURES    ON   THE  [lECT.  XXIII. 

constrains  by  the  secret  charm  of  gratitude  for  benefits 
received. 

No;  you  are  yet  dead  and  lifeless  as  to  God.  Your 
faith  is  a  mere  speculative  act  of  the  understanding.  You 
never  read  with  devout  prayer  for  the  illumination  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  records  of  Revelation;  it  is  neither  your 
companion  nor  your  delight.  Any  book  is  more  interest- 
ing; any  tidings  produce  more  impression.  And  is  this  the 
manner  in  which  you  receive  a  communication  from  your 
Creator,  your  Benefactor,  your  Sovereign,  your  future 
Judge.'*  Is  this  the  return  you  offer  for  the  condescension  and 
grace  of  a  divine  Revelation?  Is  this  the  use  you  make 
of  the  stupendous  discoveries  of  eternity,  and  the  infinite 
blessings  of  redemption?  Is  this  the  way  you  prepare  for 
an  everlasting  state?  What!  you  hear  of  God,  and  never 
believe  in  iiim;  you  hear  of  a  Saviour,  and  never  receive 
him;  you  hear  of  the  fallen  and  guilty  condition  of  man, 
and  never  tremble  on  account  of  it;  you  hear  of  heaven 
and  iiell,  and  never  prepare  to  attain  the  one  and  escape 
the  other. 

Atvake,  then,  thou  that  sleepesi,  and  arise  from  the  dead.^ 
Remember,  a  mere  notional  faith  is  a  mockery  of  God,  a 
frustrating  of  all  the  ends  of  Revelation,  an  aggravation  of 
your  guilt,  a  resigning  yourself  to  the  same  punishment 
with  those  fallen  spirits  who  only  believe  and  tremble. 

But  you  are  aroused  to  some  consideration.  You  are 
convinced  that  your  present  nominal  Christianity  will  not 
suffice.  You  ask  me  how  you  can  obtain  a  lively  faith. 
I  direct  you  then — 

II.     To     IMPLORE    THE     GRACE    OF      THE      HoLY    SpIRIT     TO 

IMPART  TO  YOU  THIS  BLESSING.  A  truc  faith,  like  a  true 
love  to  God,  can  be  obtained  in  no  other  way.  And  our 
heavenly  Father  has  promised  his  Holy  Spirit  to  ihcm  that 
ask  him.  It  is  the  capital  blessing  of  Revelation,  next  to 
the  gift  of  a  Saviour;  or  rather,  it  is  the  blessing  through 
which  the  gift  of  a  Saviour  and  every  otiier  gift  becomes 
truly  beneficial  to  us.     The  influences  of  grace,  like  dew 

(I)  Eph.  V.  11. 


LECT.    XXIII.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  307 

in  the  natural  world,  soften,  penetrate,  and  fertilize.  The 
hardest  heart  yields  to  this  sacred  power.  The  will  is 
changed;  tlie  importance  of  truth  is  perceived;  the  mind  is 
directed  with  a  strong  self-application  to  the  consideration 
of  the  doctrines  it  had  before  passed  over;  the  emotions  of 
fear,  alarm,  remorse,  penitence,  are  awakened;  the  soul  be- 
comes contrite.  In  such  a  heart,  as  in  a  genial  and  fruit- 
ful soil,  faith  quickly  grows  up.  The  man  who  had  been 
exercising  the  natural  capacity  of  believing  on  human  tes- 
timony all  his  life,  and  had  always  been  roused,  directed, 
animated,  consoled,  alarmed  by  it,  according  to  the  matter 
of  that  testimony;  whilst  he  had  never  exerted  that  capacity 
upon  divine  Revelation,  nor  once  yielded  his  heart  and  con- 
science to  its  discoveries;  this  man  begins  to  come  to  him- 
self, to  act  as  a  reasonable  being,  to  repose  on  the  word  of 
the  eternal  God  that  faith  which  he  had  been  previously 
refusing  to  do. 

All  is  now  hopeful;  life  appears;  he  now  earnestly  prays 
for  the  grace  and  assistance  of  which  he  feels  deeply  the 
need;  he  seizes  his  Bible;  he  reads  it  with  new  eyes;  it 
seems  to  speak  to  him  individually;  he  receives  with  the 
simplicity  and  affection  of  a  child  all  that  his  heavenly 
Father  declares;  he  applies  truth  to  its  proper  purposes. 
The  first  is  to  lay  him  low  in  contrition  for  sin;  the  next  is 
to  fix  his  eye  on  the  meritorious  cross  of  his  Saviour;  the 
third  is  to  produce  peace  of  conscience,  by  the  forgiveness 
of  sins.  The  following  steps  of  love,  gratitude,  obedience, 
separation  from  the  world,  holy  mortification  of  sin,  follow. 

Go  on,  then,  in  this  course.  Implore  daily  the  aids  of 
grace  to  repair  a  decayed,  and  succor  a  trembling,  and  con- 
firm a  feeble  faith.  Faith  is  a  constant  victory  over  inter- 
posing doubts.  It  is  a  conflict,  in  one  form  or  other,  with 
the  objections  and  fallacies  which  we  considered  in  our  last 
Lectures."  It  is  a  conquest  over  the  dictates  of  mere 
human  wisdom  and  the  conclusions  of  mere  external  per- 
ception. It  unites  us  with  Christ,  takes  up  the  cross, 
endures  as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible,  realises  eternal  and 

(u)  Lectures  xxi,  xxii. 


308  LECTURKS    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXHT. 

future  blessings — and  looks  not  at  the  things  ivhich  are  seen, 
but  at  the  tilings  which  are.  not  seen.'"' 

You  must,  therefore,  continually  depend  on  the  succors 
of  grace  to  strengthen  in  you  the  habit  of  faith,  and  pre- 
serve it  in  life  and  vigor;  to  give  you  the  impression  of  its 
REASONABLF.NKs^,  after  having  once  admitted  the  truth  of 
Christianity;  and  to  lead  you  to  exercise  it  to  all  the  extent 
which  the  nature  of  the  case  demands,  and  apply  it  to  every 
part  of  Scripture. 

Thus  will  you  grow  in  faith  more  and  more;  interposing 
doubts  and  objections  will  less  annoy  you;  the  temptations 
of  Satan  will  less   prevail;  nay,  the  shield  of  faith  avill 

QUENCH    the    FIEKY  DARTS    OF    THE    DEVIL.^ 

III.  And  in  this  progress,  you  will  learn  ever  to  retain 
THAT  HUMILITY  OF  MIND,  which  the  highest  degrees  of  faith 
are  the  best  calculated  to  produce.  For  this  most  pecul- 
iarly becomes  us  in  a  state  of  discipline  and  comparative 
darkness,  like  tiiat  in  which  we  now  are.  The  divisions  of 
the  church  have  much  arisen  from  a  want  of  the  due  union 
of  humility  with  faith.  And  yet  the  very  nature  of  this 
grace  should,  and  will,  in  proportion  as  it  is  genuine,  pro- 
duce lowliness  of  mind. 

Humility  is  the  very  handmaid  of  true  faith;  the  only 
soil  where  it  will  flourish.  While  pride,  and  presumption, 
and  unholy  curiosity  engage  the  heart,  doubts  prevail,  objec- 
tions retain  their  force,  faith  cannot  enter.  And  if  these 
evils  ever  regain  their  influence  after  they  have  been  de- 
throned, fiiith  languishes,  doubts  thicken,  objections  recur; 
the  strength  of  the  soul  is  gone;  eternal  realities  fade  from 
the  view;  temporal  interests  assume  a  false  magnitude; 
Satan,  the  great  adversaiy,  gains  an  advantage  over  us; 
and  sensual  passions  are  at  hand,  as  instruments  of  his 
snares. 

Let  us,  then,  walk  in  humility  of  heart.  This  is  the  les- 
son of  the  entire  revelation  of  the  Gospel;  and  more  espe- 
cially of  the  subject  to  which  we  have  been  now  attending. 

We  should  be  thankful,  indeed,  for  the  sure  testimony  of 
God,  and  for  the  least  measure  of  true  faith  in  it.     This 

(v)  1  Cor.  iii.  (w)  Eph.  vi.  16. 


LECT.    XXIIT.J  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  309 

blessing  is  incalculable.  Compared  with  the  darkness  of 
nature,  Revelation  is  a  blazing  light;  the  Saviour  is  the  Sun 
of  Rigliteousness;  the  gospel  a  day  of  illumination  and  joy. 
But  still,  as  respects  our  own  imperfect  apprehension  of 
these  blessings,  our  dangers  from  our  spiritual  adversaries, 
and  the  brighter  discoveries  of  eternity,  we  are  in  an  ob- 
scure and  confused  state.  f'Ve  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight.^ 
We  see  through  a  glass  darkly,^ — in  an  enigma — we  speak 
only  as  children;  we  know  partially.  We  are  making  our 
way  through  the  night  of  this  world;  faith  is  only  as  a  lamp 
glimmering  in  a  sepulchre,  sufficient  to  guide  our  lowly  path, 
but  never  intended  to  administer  to  our  self-confidence  and 
pride.  It  has  its  best  effect  when  it  leads  us  to  repose  on 
the  sure  word  of  prophecy,  and  thereunto  to  take  heed,  as  unto 
a  light  shining  in  a  dark  place,  till  the  day  dawn,  and  the  day- 
star  arise  in  our  hearts.^ 

(x)  2  Cor.  V.  7.  (y)  1  Cor.  xiii.  12.  (z)  2  Pet    i.  19. 


LECTURE  XXIV. 


THE  SOUND  INTERPRETATION  OF  THE  REC- 
ORDS OF  REVELATION. 

2  Tim.  ii.    15. 
Rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth. 

Having  considered  the  faith  with  which  the  divine  records 
of  Christianity  are  to  be  received,  it  is  necessary,  in  the  next 
place,  to  offer  some  remarks  on  the  just  method  of  inter- 
preting the  meaning  of  those  records  which  such  a  faith 
implies. 

For,  in  an  age  of  literary  innovation  and  intellectual  dar- 
ing, men  may  admit,  generally,  the  Christian  religion,  and 
even  pass  over,  without  remark,  the  description  of  a  true 
faith;  and  yet  may  evade  the  whole  design  of  Christianity, 
by  a  false  system  of  interpretation.  For  as  in  the  dark 
ages  an  excessive  superstition  bowed  to  the  mere  au- 
thority of  the  church;  so,  in  the  present  day,  a  bold  and 
hazardous  licentiousness  may  throw  all  the  peculiar  doctrines 
of  the  Bible  into  doubt  and  uncertainty.  We  have  now 
the  corruptions  of  eighteen  hundred  years  flowing  together. 
We  have  a  secret  infidelity,  under  the  name  of  Christianity. 
It  is  important,  therefore,  to  consider  what  clue  we  may 
find  in  the  principles  laid  down  in  our  former  Lectures,  to 
guide  us  on  our  way. 


LECT.  XXIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  311 

Now,  the  observations  already  oifered  on  the  nature,  rea- 
sonableness, and  extent  of  faith,  imply  all,  and  more  than 
all,  that  we  can  require.  Indeed,  we  might  throw  ourselves 
back  upon  the  Lectures  on  Inspiration,''  where  we  found 
that  every  thing  was  simple,  human,  ordinary,  as  to  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  sacred  writers  conveyed  to  us  those  in- 
structions which  were  inspired  and  superintended  by  the 
Divine  Spirit.  But  the  class  of  young  persons,  whom  I 
have  especially  in  my  eye  in  these  discourses,  require  details. 

Let  us,  therefore,  consider  the  right  method  of  interpret- 
ing Scripture,  as  springing  directly  from  a  true   fatih; 

as     AIDED    RV      common    SKNSR      AND    THE      ORDINARY      LAWS      OF 

HUMAN     language;    and   as  suggested    and    amplified    by 

THE    particular    CHARACTER    OF     AN    INSPIRED    BOOK. 

I.  Let  us  consider  how  a  right  method  of  interpreting 
Scripture  springs  directly  from  a  true  faith. 

1.  For  such  a  faith  implies  an  honest  application  of  our 
NATURAL  understanding  to  the  sacrcd  scriptures  as  a  reve- 
lation from  Almighty  God.  The  key  to  all  sound  interpre- 
tation, is  a  due  reverence  for  the  divine  writings,  in  opposi- 
tion to  levity,  to  human  fancies,  to  a  scornful  spirit,  to  at- 
tempts to  force  a  meaning  on  the  holy  word.  The  very 
essence  of  faith  is  submission  to  the  testimony  of  God. 
Reason  closes  her  reign,  as  to  the  matter  before  her,  when 
she  opens  the  book  of  God,  and  faith  ascends  the  throne — 
leaving  to  reason  her  proper  province,  the  subordinate  min- 
istration of  arranging  and  expounding  the  new  and  majestic 
truths  thus  brought  before  her. 

Faith  in  Christianity,  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  faith 
in  the  things  of  which  Christianity  consists — faith  in  the 
matter  of  Revelation — that  is,  in  the  real  and  honest 
meaning  of  the  words  and  sentences,  conveying  those  mat- 
ters to  reasonable  and  accountable  beings.  This  speaks 
for  itself.  Is  faith  merely  a  pretence,  which  allows,  gener- 
ally, a  submission  to  divine  Revelation,  and  then  rejects,  by 
piecemeal,  the  particulars  of  which  that  Revelation  con- 
sists? Is  that  faith?  Or,  is  it  faith,  to  pretend  plausibly  to 
receive  the  Bible  as  the  unerring  word  of  God,  and  then  to 

(a)  Led.  xii.  and  xili. 


313  LECTURES    ON    THE  [leCT.  XXIV. 

bring  our  own  opinions,  our  own  notions,  our  own  preju- 
dices, and  impose  them  on  that  word?  Is  it  faith  to  profess 
an  unreserved  obedience  to  the  statute  law  of  heaven,  pro- 
mulgaled  by  the  great  Sovereign  of  the  universe — and  then 
to  cavil,  to  elude  the  plain  sense,  to  alter  all  the  provisions 
of  that  statute  law?  What!  is  natural  religion  to  be  the 
limit  of  our  faith  in  revealed,  and  all  beyond  to  be  explained 
away  or  exscinded?  No.  A  true  belief  involves,  in  its 
very  first  exercise,  an  honest  application  of  our  natural 
understanding  to  the  matters  of  the  divine  Record,  as  rest- 
ing on  the  testimony  of  Almighty  God. 

2.   Faith  includes,  in  the  next  place,  a  thorottgh   wii.r-iNC- 
NESS    to    submit  our    undekstanding  and    heart  to  all 

THE     TRUTHS    WHICH    Goii     IS    I'X.KASF.n    TO    RKVP:\U.        lu   faCt, 

without  an  unprejudiced,  and  docile  temper  of  mind,  no 
book  on  morals  or  religion  can  teach;  much  less  can  the 
Bible.  False  interpretations,  spring  from  man's  perverse 
resistance  to  the  matter  which  a  simple  and  obvious  render- 
ing would  bring  out.  Now,  this  is  intolerable.  The  least 
true  and  lively  faith  will  produce  something  of  that  humility 
before  the  infinite  Creator,  that  sense  of  ignorance,  that 
conviction  of  the  immeasurable  distance  between  God  and 
man,  which  bow  the  whole  soul  before  the  discoveries  of 
Revelation.  A  natural  interpretation  of  the  Bible  follows 
of  course.  The  student  comes  to  it  to  be  taught;  he  sits  as 
a  scholar  to  receive  instruction;  he  presents  his  understand- 
ing and  heart  as  a  plain,  unwritten  tablet  for  the  divine 
Author  of  Revelation  to  inscribe  therein  whatsoever  he 
pleases.     This  is  of  the  very  essence  of  faith. 

In  fact,  the  whole  of  our  present  subject  is  merely  tiie 
working  out  of  the  particular  habit  of  mind  of  which  faith 
consists,  and  to  which  it  leads.  "The  Bible,"  says  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  "must  be  read  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  it  was 
written."  This  temper  will  not,  indeed,  enlarge  the  powers 
of  the  understanding  or  discernment  beyond  the  reach  of 
man.  Mysteries  will  be  mysteries  still;  but  it  will  give  a 
sincere  and  unreserved  desire  to  know  God's  will,  to  receive 
from  Scripture,  and  not  to  bring  to  it,  the  truths  of  religionj 
and  to  interpret  the  divine  word  according  to  its  own  prin- 


LECT.    XXIV.]  EVIDENCES     OF     CHRISTIANITY.  313 

ciples  and  discoveries,  and  the  analogy  of  its  doctrines;  and 
not  according  to  preconceived  opinions,  natural  religion, 
the  reasonings  of  men,  the  notions  of  the  world,  the  preju- 
dices of  a  sect,  the  prescriptions  of  a  church,  or  the  stand- 
ard of  theology  which  may  happen  to  prevail  in  any  par- 
ticular place  or  time. 

3.  Again,  faith  puts  us  in  possesston  of  many  of  the 
BLESSINGS  of  which  the  Scriptures  treat,  and  gives  us  a  just 
apprehension  of  the  great  subject  of  divine  Revelation. 
Even  a  work  of  human  literature  and  science,  can  only  be 
understood  by  those  who  know  somelhing  of  the  general 
matter  treated  of.  He  who  loves  the  science,  and  enters 
into  it,  will  be  the  best  interpreter;  will  take  the  greatest 
pains;  will  have  the  largest  share  of  self-distrust,  when  diffi- 
culties arise;  will  take  things  in  their  order,  and  apply  them 
for  the  opening  of  his  way  to  further  advances.  Whereas, 
a  man  who  knows  little  of  the  matter  treated  of,  or  who  has 
no  delight  in  it,  or  is  possessed  with  an  hypothesis  contrary 
to  its   first  principles,  will  make  out  very  little   to  purpose. 

Thus  in  the  Bible,  interpretation  to  one  who  is  in  posses- 
sion of  the  blessings  treated  of,  is  rather  intuition  than 
reasoning.  Ninety-nine  things  out  of  a  hundred,  which 
puzzle  the  merely  learned  theologian,  are  to  him  obvious 
and  clear.  In  reading,  for  instance,  the  epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  if  he  has  obtained  the  chief  blessings  there  delineated, 
and  is  in  the  practice  of  the  duties  enjoined;  if  he  has  felt 
the  discoveries  made  of  man's  fallen  and  sinful  state;  if, 
by  the  particular  application  of  the  principle  of  faith,  he 
has  reposed  a  humble  trust  in  the  propitiation  of  the  Son  of 
God,  and  has  received  the  blessing  of  a  free  justification; 
if  he  has  been  led  to  love  Gud  by  the  influences  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  is  delighting  to  walk  in  his  commandments — if 
he  has  all  these  things,  of  course  he  has  a  key  to  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  language  relating  to  them. 

But  if  in  studying  these  epistles,  a  man  sets  out  with  a 
high  opinion  of  his  own  understanding  and  his  own  merits; 
if  he  has  no  perception  of  his  fallen  and  guilty  state;  if  he 
has  no  viesv  of  his  need  of  a  Saviour,  no  reliance  upon  his 
sacrifice,  no  love  to  him,  no  desire  to  obey  him; — what  can 
40 


314  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIV. 

he  make  out  of  the  language  of  St.  Paul?     What  will  he 
do  as  an  interpreter?     He  will,  he  must  perplex  himself  and 
others;  he  will  use  terms   without  meaning;  he   will    bring 
down  the  divine  doctrine  to  his  standard;  he  will  put  things 
out  of  their  place;  he  will  be  inconsistent  and  obscure,  and 
perhaps  contradictory,  in  his  expositions;  he   will    be  a   far 
worse  interpreter   than  the  simplest  Christian   that  has  true 
faith   to  perceive   the   scope  and   tendency  of   the  matters 
treated  of    The  simple  Christian  may  sometimes  be  formally 
wrong,  he  may  mistake  a  particular  argument,  he  may  push  a 
point  beyond  its  bearing;  but  he  will  be  substantially  right. 
No  man  thoroughly  understands  a  practical  subject,  except 
he  has  experienced  it  so  far,  as  to  be  able  to  compare  what 
he  reads  or  hears  with  what  he  finds  in  himself  or  knows  to 
be  found  in  others.     The    possession  of  the   things  treated 
of  is  the  best  clue.   Other  men  make  truth,  this  man  obeys  it. 
4.  Then  faith  leads  us  to  sl:ek  the  assistance  of  God's 
BLESSED  Spirit  in  rightly  understanding  the  Scriptures.     It 
is  by  this  aid   we  attain   that  actual   experience  of  many  of 
its  blessings  which   we    have  just   been  advening  to.     The 
Christian  finds  the  Bible  to  be  a  Revelation,  with  an  accom- 
panying promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  dissipate  that  men- 
tal darkness  which  the  same   Revelation  declares  to  be  the 
effect  of  the  fall.     He   implores,   iherefcrre,   the  grace  of 
God,  the  illuminating  power,  the  aid  which  removes   preju- 
dices, which  shows  the  force  and  harmony  of  doctrine,  which 
opens   the  meaning,   and   demonstrates  the   necessity,   and 
points   out  the    adaptation,  and    gives  the    beauty  of  truth. 
Thus  he  calls  to  mind  the  Saviour's  last  act  when  he  discours- 
ed with  his  disciples,  over  whose  minds  the  notions  of  a  tem- 
poral Messiah  had  tiirown  a  cloud,  and  whose  very  love    to 
their  master,  being  ill-directed,  interfered   with   their  just 
conceptions  of  his  kingdom;  he   reu)einbers  that  our  Lord 
opened  their  understanding  that  they  might  understand  the  Scrip- 
tures; he  remembers  that  the  apostle   prayed  for  the  Ephe- 
sians,  that  they  might  have  the  spirit  of  icisdom  and  revelation 
in  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  the  eyes  of  their  understanding  being 
enlightened^     And  thus  he  unites  prayer  for  these  blessings 

(b)  Luke  xxiv.  45]    Eph.  i.  17,  18. 


LECT.    XXIV.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANIY.  315 

with  every  effort  of  his  judgment  in  the  interpretation  of 
the  Scriptures;  he  leans  not  to  human  wisdom,  but  seeks  of 
God  divine  teaching  and  grace. 

5.  Faith  also  guards  us  against  the  danger  of  hazard- 
ous INTERPRETATIONS,  OR  A  FALSE  USE  OF  DIFFICULT  PAS- 
SAGES. 

The  will  of  man  is  deeply  concerned  in  all  departures 
from  the  trutli.*=  No  fundamental  principle  rests  upon  one 
or  two  difficult  texts.  If  there  be  that  singleness  of  heart 
which  is  involved  in  a  lively  faith,  no  danger  will  arise  from 
the  misunderstanding  of  such  passages — and  they  are  but 
few.  The  peril  arises,  not  from  the  existence  of  such  pas- 
sages in  Scripture,  but  from  the  wresting  them,  when  we  are 
unstable  and  unlearned,  to  our  own  destruction.'^  Whereas, 
if  faith  meets  these  texts,  she  either  wholly  leaves  them,  or 
else  uses  them  to  the  purposes  for  which  the  entire  Revela- 
tion of  Christ  was  communicated.  The  perverse  disputings 
which  the  apostle  guards  us  against,  are  of  men  of  corrupt 
minds.^  Men  of  humble  minds,  endued  with  true  faith,  fall 
not  into  perverse  disputings;  if  controversies  arise,  they  will 
not  be  perverse,  they  will  not  be  of  men  who  corrupt  the  word 
of  God,  they  will  not  be  of  men  who  handle  the  word 
of  God  deceitfully.  Thus  faith  shapes  her  course  safely 
amidst  the  shoals  and  quicksands,  where  human  presump- 
tion would  make  shipwreck. 

6.  Finally,  the  same  principle  of  submission  to  God's 
testimony  will  dispose  us  to  resort  to  all  necessary 
HELPS,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  different  cases  which 
arise.  A  possession  of  the  main  blessings  of  Christianity 
and  reliance  on  the  assistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  will  guard 
the  Christian  against  material  error;  but  will  not  exempt  him 
from  the  necessity  of  various  subordinate  helps  for  attaining 
a  more  adequate  knowledge  of  truth  in  all  its  bearings  and 
proportions.  Divine  Revelation  is  indeed  perfectly  distinct 
from  human  science,  as  emanating  from  the  fiuntain  of  wis- 
dom; yet  it  has  this  in  common  with  ordinary  science,  that 

(c)  Bishop  Van  Mildert,  to  whom  Ihis  lecture  is  much  indebted 
(d)  2  Pel.  iii.  16.  (c)  1  Tim.  vi.  5. 


316  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXIV, 

it  flows  through  the  channel  of  hum;in  instruction.  We 
must  receive  it  not  as  the  ivorcl  of  men,  but  as  it  is  in  truth,  the 
word  of  God;  *"  but  we  n)ust  nevertheless  examine  it  as  it  is 
delivered,  clothed  in  the  language  of  men,  and  subject  to 
the  general  rules  of  composition.  This  is  the  province  of 
human  learning;  the  matter  being  still  unreservedly  sub- 
mitted to,  as  coming  from  God  himself,  and  infinitely  supe- 
rior to  the  mere  petty  arts  of  human  criticism.  Supersti- 
tion blinds  the  eyes  of  men,  forbids  them  to  study  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  enjoins  an  implicit  obedience  to  the  traditions  of 
the  church.  Enthusiasm  rejects  all  human  aid  and  professes 
to  rely  exclusively  on  the  illuminating  Spirit.  A  well-in- 
formed faith  avoids  each  extreme.  It  relies  simply  on  the 
divine  aid  for  the  matter  of  truth;  but  for  the  form  she  con- 
sults all  those  helps  which  a  good  providence  places  within 
her  reach;  the  labors  of  commentators;  the  writings  of  the 
fathers;  the  confessions  of  particular  churches;  the  general 
consent  of  the  universal  church  in  all  ages  and  places;  the 
aids  of  travellers,  historians  and  naturalists;  all  the  lights 
cast  on  the  study  of  the  original  languages,  and  the  kindred 
dialects;  the  continual  elucidation  of  living  students; 
together  with  the  deductions  of  reason  as  to  the  relative 
bearing  of  the  things  laid  before  us.  Only  these  aids  will 
be  consulted  not  as  primary,  but  subordinate;  not  as  masters 
and  lords  over  faith,  but  servants  and  ministers  to  her;  not 
as  permitted  to  meddle  with  the  matters  revealed,  but  in 
order  to  arrive  at  the  fact,  what  are  really  the  revealed 
matters. 

In  these  various  respects,  then,  a  just  exposition  of  the 
meaning  of  Scripture  springs  directly  from  faith,  because 
the  true  and  living  faith  which  receives  divine  Revelation, 
receives  the  particulars  of  which   that  Revelation   consists. 

But  whilst  a  right  interpretation  has  this  source,  it  will  be 
materially  aided  by, 

II.    Common  sense    and  the  okdinauy  laws  of    human 

LANGUAGE. 

Faith  having  laid  the  foundation  of  a  just  understanding 
of  Scripture,  hands  us  over  to  the  general  dictates  of  con- 

(0  1  Thess.  ii.  13. 


LECT.    XXIV.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  317 

science,  and  the  rules  by  which  language  is  ordinarily  inter- 
preted. To  leach  by  human  language,  is  to  teach  by  ideas 
which  already  form  a  part  of  the  stock  of  human  knowledge. 
If  terms  are  used  in  a  new  sense,  they  will  be  found  to  be 
explained  by  the  sacred  writers.  If  divine  grace  is  neces- 
sary to  the  reception  of  spiritual  things,  this  also  will,  as 
we  have  frequently  observed,  be  fairly  avowed  in  the  Reve- 
lation itself.  But  the  language  will,  after  all,  be  human,  and 
be  subject  to  the  usual  laws  by  which  ideas  are  conceived 
and  expressed.  There  is,  indeed,  a  poverty  in  all  language; 
and  translations,  and  distance  of  time  and  place,  may  throw 
an  ambiguity  over  certain  passages  of  ancient  authors;  yet, 
in  point  of  fact,  there  is  only  one  true  sense  to  be  attached 
to  any  word,  in  any  writer,  ancient  or  modern;  which  sense 
is  indicated  by  the  connexion  and  series  of  the  discourse, 
by  its  subject-matter,  by  the  design  of  the  speaker  or  writer, 
or  by  some  other  adjunct. 

In  common  life,  no  [)rudent  and  conscientious  man  in- 
tends that  a  diversity  of  meanings  should  be  assigned  to 
what  he  writes  or  says.  And  if  books  are  handed  down  to 
us,  as  of  authority  and  credit,  it  is  because  they  were  com- 
posed with  integrity  of  purpose.  Now,  if  this  be  the  prac- 
tice in  all  fiiir  and  upright  intercourse  between  man  and 
man,  much  more  is  it  so  in  the  Book  of  God.  The  per- 
spicuity of  Scripture,  the  plainness  and  simplicity  of  the 
style,  the  artless  form  of  the  narrative  parts,  its  brief  and 
diversified  hymns  and  psalms,  the  gospels  and  epistles 
penned  by  the  Evangelists  and  Apostles,  for  popular  in- 
struction; the  manner  in  which  truth  is  generally  conveyed, 
surrounded  with  practical  uses,  and  as  occasions  served  to 
develope  it — all  this  assures  us  that  the  ordinary  common- 
sense  laws  of  human  language,  are  our  safe  guide  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  sacred  Records.  The  design  of  God 
in  his  Revelation  would  be  lost  to  his  creatures,  if  an  end- 
less multiplicity  of  senses  were  once  admitted. 

Some  chief  rules,  however,  may  be  laid  down,  which  are 
nothing  but  the  application  of  these  principles:  but  which 
still  may  be  of  use  in  a  day  like  the  present,  when  novelties 


318  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIV. 

of  all  kinds  are  afloat,  and  the  very  grounds  of  an  honest 
interpretation  are  disputed. 

1.  The  si.mi'lf:st  sknsk  is  generally  the  true  one. 
The  Bible  is  the  most  popular  book  in  the  world.  "Where 
the  simple  and  obvious  sense  will  stand,"  says  the  judicious 
Hooker,  "he  that  departs  from  it,  goes  farthest  from  the  real 
mind  of  the  Spirit."  The  methods  of  obtaining  this  sense 
are  not  arbitrary,  any  more  than  in  any  other  book;  but 
fixed  by  laws  drawn  by  experience  and  observation  from  the 
nature  of  language.  All  important  truth  lies  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  Scriptures,  recurs  again  and  again,  is  stated  in 
a  variety  of  forms,  and  presented  in  many  different  lights. 
No  man  can  mistake  it,  so  far  as  the  comprehension  of  it 
depends  on  the  terms  employed.  It  is  not  interpretation, 
but  faith  which  is  wanting.  It  is  the  passions  of  men,  not 
the  difficulties  of  Scripture,  which  corrupt  our  decisions. 
The  vast  bulk  of  mankind  are  quite  as  capable  of  under- 
standing all  its  main  statements,  as  the  learned  few,  though 
these  can  combine  truth  better  into  a  system,  and  defend  it 
more  successfully  against  the  arts  of  sophists.  This  one 
rule  embraces  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  parts  out  of  a 
thousand  of  the  doctrinal  and  preceptive  parts  of  the  Bible. 
2.  If  the  sense  of  certain  passages  be  not  obvious,  then 
consult  more  at  length  the  occasion  oe  the  book  being 
WRITTEN,  the  time  when  it  was  published,  the  persons  to 
whom  it  was  addressed,  the  context  by  which  it  is  sur- 
rounded. This  is  what  an  honest  man  does  as  to  any  human 
writing.  Generally  the  sense  is  simple,  and  he  follows  it. 
If  difficulties  occur,  he  pauses,  he  reads  the  passage  again, 
he  looks  to  the  preceding  and  following  sentences,  he  con- 
siders the  occasion,  the  persons,  the  time,  the  general  sub- 
ject of  the  writing.  Thus  he  soon  obtains  the  true  mean- 
ing, or  a  meaning  not  very  remote  from  the  true  one.  For 
no  material  fiilse  sense  can  be  put  upon  a  particular  expres- 
sion, but  some  other  expressions  in  tlie  sentence,  some  other 
parts  of  the  narrative  or  argument  will  detect  it.  The 
false  meaning  may  suit  some  few  of  the  surrounding 
terms,  but  not  all;  and,  like  a  key  to  a  lock,  unless  it  be  the 
true  one,  it  will  only  be  the  more  difficult  to  pass,  as  force 


LECT.    XXIV.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  319 

and  violence  are  applied.  Matters  of  history,  names,  chro- 
nological dates,  geographical  niceties,  genealogies,  lie  gen- 
erally the  most  open  to  uncertainty;  and  it  is  of  little  com- 
parative moment  to  determine  these  things  over  accurately, 
so  far  as  the  practical  influence  of  Christianity  is  concerned. 
Other  passages  are  illustrated  by  the  usages  of  the  time, 
by  the  observations  of  travellers  in  the  east,  by  the  estab- 
lished force  of  proverbial  language,  by  the  comparison  of 
parallel  phrases.  Here  a  cautious  criticism  has  her  natural 
province,  and  no  limit  can  be  assigned  to  the  just  improve- 
ments and  discoveries  vvliich  every  age  brings.  All  this  is 
the  dictate  of  common  sense.     Another  rule  follows. 

3.     Let  BKIKF    PASSAGES    BE   EXPLAINED  BV  THOSE  THAT    ARE 
MORE    FULL    ON    THE    SAME    OR  KINDRED     SUBJECTS.       The  COl- 

lation  of  parallel  texts  is  the  master-key  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. It  makes  the  Bible  its  own  interpreter.  It  surrounds 
the  short,  apophlegmatic  summaries  of  truth  with  a  divine 
exposition.  It  gives  the  pregnant  word  its  real,  because  in- 
spired, meaning.  I  read  of  the  Almighty  being  a  rock,  a 
refuge,  a  hiding-place;  I  read  of  Christ  being  the  shepherd 
of  his  people;  I  read  of  the  preaching  of  the  cross;  I  read 
of  the  Comforter  of  the  church.  I  want  to  know  the  im- 
port of  these  or  the  like  brief  phrases.  I  turn  to  what  the 
same  sacred  writers  have  themselves  said  more  at  length  on 
the  same  topics.  This  is  my  clue.  I  throw  into  the  single 
term  all  the  ideas  conveyed  in  the  enlarged  instruction. 
Thus  the  mysteries  of  the  being  and  perfections  of  the  eter- 
nal God,  of  the  incarnation,  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross, 
the  fall  of  man,  the  operations  of  grace  are  all  expounded 
for  me  by  the  presiding  Spirit.  The  prophecies  of  the  Old 
Testament,  again,  are  thus  made  to  illustrate  the  transac- 
tions of  the  New;  and  the  history  of  the  New  to  reflect 
light  upon  the  Old.  The  phraseology  of  the  Mosaic  econo- 
my is  thus  traced  out  in  the  language  of  the  Evangelical,  and 
is  interpreted  according  to  that  more  spiritual  dispensation. 
The  historical  parts  of  Scripture  arc  also  blended  in  one 
body  with  the  preceptive;  and  the  prophets'  allusions  to 
passing  events,  are  illustrated  by  the  reigns  of  the  kings 
under  whom  they  flourished. 


320  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIV. 

There  is  nothing  which  is  necessary  for  man  to  know,  but, 
if  it  is  expressed  concisely  and  briefly  in  one  part  of  Scrip- 
ture, is  given  more  fuliy  and  explicitly  in  another.  It  is  the 
same  inspiring  Spirit  that  speaks  every  where,  and  it  is  our 
duty  to  follow  his  infallible  guidance. 

"I  will  not  scruple  to  assert,"  says  Bishop  Horsley,  "that 
the  most  illiterate  Christian,  if  he  can  but  read  his  English 
Bible  and  will  take  the  pains  to  read  it  in  this  manner," 
(comparing  the  parallel  passages  according  to  the  referen- 
ces,) "will  not  only  obtain  all  that  practical  knowledge 
which  is  necessary  to  salvation,  but  by  God's  blessing  will 
become  learned  in  every  thing  relating  to  religion,  in  such 
a  degree,  that  he  will  not  be  liable  to  be  removed,  either  by 
the  refined  arguments,  or  by  the  false  assertions  of  those 
who  endeavor  to  graft  their  own  opinions  upon  the  oracles 
of  God.  Let  him  siudy  the  Bible  in  the  manner  which  I 
recommend,  and  let  him  never  cease  to  pray  for  the  illumina- 
tion of  that  Spirit  by  which  these  books  were  dictated,  and 
the  whole  compass  of  abstruse  philosophy  and  recondite  his- 
tory shall  furnish  no  arguments  with  which  the  perverse  will 
of  man  shall  be  able  to  shake  this  learned  Christian's  faith." 

4.  Let  FIGURATIVE  AND  POETICAL  PARTS  BE  INTERPRETED 
BY  THE  FIXED  AND  ORDINARY  LAWS  WHICH  ARE  CONSTANTLY 
APPLIED    TO    SUCH    LANGUAGE      IN    COMMON     LIFE.       Evcry     OUe 

knows  the  difference  between  an  act  of  Parliament   and  an 
ode;  and  every  honest  mind  applies   the   rules  of  language 
as   they  are  respectively   suitable   to  each.     In  grave   and 
strait-forward   history,  in  the   lives  of  patriarchs  and  saints, 
in  the  narratives  of  our  Saviour's  actions,  in  the  delivery  of 
solemn   doctrine   and    precept  in   the  epistles,  the   obvious 
sense  of  words  is  the  true  one.     In  the  lofty  poems  of  Mo- 
ses, of  Isaiah,  of  David;  in   the   allegories  and   parables  of 
our  Lord;  in  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon;  in  the  poetical  imag- 
ery of  the  Canticles  and  the  book  of  Job;  in  other  parts  of 
Scripture   where    the    style    is    figurative,    highly    sublime, 
richly   adorned    with    metaphors,   abounding    with    sudden 
transitions;  filled  with   those  kinds  of  expressions   which  an 
impassioned  feeling  or  the  prophetical  impulse  dictates — the 
interpretation  is  subject  to  different  rules,  but  rules  as  strict 


LECT.    XXIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  321 

as  in  the  plainest  and  most  unadorned  prose.  Every  man 
feels  this,  and  inscnsil)ly  obeys  the  leading  of  common 
sense  in  interpreting  the  hinguage  of"  the  Scriptures.  The 
danger  arises  when  weak  or  ill  informed  persons  lake  occa- 
sion to  impose  wild  and  fanciful  senses,  merely  because  cer- 
tain tern)s,  independently  considered,  might  admit  of  them, 
though  in  their  connection  they  reject  any  such  violence. 
And  still  greater  evil  springs  from  the  application  of  typi- 
cal or  poetical  rules  of  interpretation  to  the  preceptive  parts 
of  Scripture,  and  thus  explaining  away  all  the  force  of  the 
most  solemn  truths  under  the  pretence  of  eastern  imagery 
or  Mosaical  types.  Common  sense  distinguishes.  Common 
sense,  as  the  handmaid  to  faith,  passes  on  securely.  It  is 
the  perverse  and  wilful,  or  the  weak  and  inconsiderate,  who 
are  led  astray.  No  man  can  wander  far,  that  desires  to  seek 
truth,  and  uses  the  proper  means  for  attaining  it.  The  par- 
ables have  commonly  a  key  given  by  our  Lord.  The  lofti- 
est flights  of  the  prophets  have  some  main  import.  The 
most  profound  observations  on  human  life,  in  the  Proverbs 
and  Ecclesiastes,  have  a  clear  and  declared  practical  pur- 
pose. The  devotional  poems  are  the  genuine  language  of 
the  soul  under  deep  emotions;  and  are  instantly  understood 
when  similar  emotions  are  felt.  The  few  difficulties  that 
remain  are  not  generally  so  circumstanced,  as  to  embarrass 
the  humble  student.  The  unfulhlled  prophecies,  indeed, 
where  the  highest  poetical  and  figurative  language  is  connec- 
ted with  the  obscurity  which  the  wisdom  of  God  has  spread 
over  this  part  of  his  word,  to  be  only  explained  by  event; 
call  for  more  than  usual  caution  in  what  we  venture  to  in- 
terpret; but  involve  no  practical  difficulty,  if  faith  and  humil- 
ity be  duly  regarded. 

5.   It  is  a  good   rule,  further,  to  suspend  our  judgment 

WHEliE     A     PASSAGE      IS,     AFTER     ALL,     NOT      OBVIOUS,    AND    TO 

WAIT  FUK  FURTHER  INFORMATION,  rather  than  to  commit 
ourselves  rashly  and  prematurely  to  a  decision  which  may 
turn  out  to  be  unsound.  VVoik  with  the  plain  texts,  imbibe 
the  simple  and  main  instructions,  fully  enter  into  the  large 
and  ample  materials,  where  nothing  is  wanting  but  time, 
prayer,  meditation,  love.  Suspend  your  judgment  on  the 
41 


322  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIV. 

difficult  passages.  They  are  left  as  trials  of  your  humility. 
Tliey  are  atiached  perhaps  fully  as  much  to  the  matter  as 
the  expressions.  Do  not  stop  all  future  improvement  by 
wedding  yourself  to  an  hypothesis,  and  then  coaxing  texts, 
as  it  were,  to  speak  your  meaning.  The  Bible  is  a  depth 
which  we  shall  never  fathom  in  all  its  parts.  Like  the 
book  of  nature,  it  is  clear  in  its  most  important  features, 
and  speaks  the  divine  power  and  goodness;  but,  like  that 
book,  it  is  mysterious  as  to  the  essences  of  things  and  their 
mode  of  existence,  and  involves  a  thousand  mysteries  be- 
yond our  short-sighted  view.  But  like  that  book,  again,  it 
lies  open  to  the  cautious  labors  of  future  inquirers.  Some 
lights  have  been  thrown  upon  it  by  every  diligent  and  hum- 
ble student.  Every  age  leaves  the  difficulties  lessened. 
We  transmit  to  others  those  which  we  cannot  surmount,  as 
the  preceding  ages  left  us  many  which  we  have  been  ena- 
bled to  elucidate.  The  same  impress  of  majesty  and  yet 
simplicity,  of  clearness  and  yet  mysteriousness,  of  main  and 
great  features,  prominent  and  intelligible,  and  deep  obscu- 
rities in  the  detail,  appear  in  the  book  of  nature  and  the 
book  of  Christianity. 

6.  I  observe,  therefore,  lastly,  that  the  great  scope  and 
ANALOGY  OF  TUUTH  vvill  either  solve  all  material  difficulties, 
or  render  them,  in  a  practical  view,  so  useful,  as  to  produce 
perhaps  better  effects  than  if  they  were  all  explicitly  solved. 
The  main  scope  of  the  Bible  is  not  civil  history,  poetry, 
philosophy,  human  science,  critical  niceties,  beauties  of 
style,  artificial  systems  of  theology;  but  the  salvation  of  the 
soul  of  man,  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus.^  Every  part  of  the 
Revelation  tends  to  humble  and  abase  the  sinner,  to  honor 
and  exalt  the  Saviour,  and  to  promote  holiness.  A  distinct 
conception  of  this  main  scope,  will  assist  in  forming  a  judg- 
ment as  to  the  drift  of  passages  w  here  minor  difficuliies  occur. 

And  there  are  many  compendious  and  brilliant  summaries 
of  doctrine,  which  shine  like  the  polar  star,  to  direct  and 
guide  our  course.      In  human  compositions,  the  spirit  of  a 

(g)  "  The  scope  or  purpose  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  not  to  express  matters  of 
nature  in  the  Scriptures,  otiierwise  than  in  passage,  and  for  application  to  man's  ca- 
pacity, and  to  matters  moral  and  divine.  And  it  is  a  true  rule,  'Auctoris  aliud  apen- 
tis  parva  aurtoritas." — I/ord  R.icon. 


LECT.  XXIV.]  EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITV.  323 

book  is  allowed  to  be  every  thing.  "I  know,"  says  the 
reader,  "the  author's  mind;  I  see  his  scope;  I  perceive  his 
main  points.  There  are  some  things  which  I  cannot  so 
well  understand;  but  I  sink  thern  in  the  mass  of  those  which 
I  do."  Now  if  this  is  true  as  to  human  writings,  how  much 
more  is  it  applicable  to  a  book  which  is  divinely  inspired 
for  one  simple  purpose,  to  guide  me  from  earth  to  heaven, 
to  reveal  my  fall  and  recovery,  to  teach  me  my  duty  and  my 
happiness,  to  discover  to  me  myself  and  my  Saviour! 

But  this  leads  us  to  consider  how  all  the  preceding 
remarks  should  be  amplified  by — 

III.    The  rules  which   the  particular  character  of 

THE    INSPIRATION    BELONGING    TO     THE    BIBLE,    SUGGESTS. 

For  there  are  various  ways  in  which  corrupt  nature  is 
likely  to  fail  in  the  application  of  the  general  rules  directly 
springing  from  faith,  as  well  as  from  the  particular  details 
of  them  suggested  by  common  sense  and  the  ordinary  laws 
of  language.  These  dangers  may  probably  lie  on  the  side 
of  drawing  down  the  whole  import  of  Revelation  to  a 
human  level;  forgetting  ihe  weight  which  the  last  and  finish- 
ing portion  of  Revelation  may  claim;  explaining  away  capi- 
tal doctrines  and  duties  among  the  temporary  and  local  top- 
ics of  different  dispensations;  weakening  the  grand  distinc- 
tion between  what  is  real  and  vital,  and  wliat  is  only  nom- 
inal in  Christianity;  omitting  to  take  in  the  place  and  use 
and  proportion  and  effects  of  each  truth,  with  the  truth 
itself;  forcing  the  simple  meaning  of  Scripture  either  to 
express  or  exclude  mysteries  according  to  our  own  turn  of 
mind;  and  attempting  too  much  to  reduce  into  system  what 
perhaps  God  has  never  intended  we  should  be  able  to  effect. 

Now  to  guard  against  these  evils,  vvliich  spring  from  our 
fallen  nature,  let  us  ever  keep  in  mind  the  peculiar  character 
of  inspiration  which  the  Bible  possesses.  And,  therefore, 
let  the  matter  of  Revelation  suggest,  in  these  respects,  our 
rules  of  interpretation. 

1.      Let     us     RISE     TO     THE    SUBLIMITY    OF     THE     SCHIPTURE 

MYSTEKiEs,  and  not  bring  down  these  mysteries  to  our  petty 
conceptions.  The  things  of  Scripture  are  new,  grand,  stu- 
pendous, inconceivable.     When  we  first  discover  them  in 


324  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.   XXIV 

the  Holy  Scriptures  by  a  true  faith,  we  are  lost  in  the  con- 
templation of  tlie  greatness  of  the  ever-blessed  God  in  the 
majesty  of  his  works,  in  the  orders  of  his  providence,  in  the 
incarnation  of  his  only-begotten  Son,  in  the  sacrifice  of 
redemption,  in  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  ivhen 
we  afterwards  become  involved  in  the  human  rules  of  inter- 
pretation, we  are  in  danger  of  sinking  in  our  entire  estimate 
of  truth.  *'We  are  to  use  reason  in  religion  every  where," 
says  my  Lord  Bacon,  "only  the  mind  must  be  enlarged  to 
the  greatness  of  the  mystery,  and  not  the  mystery  contracted 
to  the  narrowness  of  the  mind.  The  words  of  Scripture 
are  plain,  the  language  generally  perspicuous;  we  think  we 
seize  the  interpretation  because  no  difficulties  occur.  But 
we  must  continually  rise  to  the  elevation,  the  vastness,  the 
glory  of  the  divine  theme.  We  must  not  insensibly  lower 
the  Revelation,  but  aim  at  enlightening  and  expanding  our 
minds  to  the  amplitude  of  the  discoveries.  We  must  con- 
ceive of  them  according  to  their  transcendent  grandeur, 
and  long  for  the  future  world  to  unfold  them  to  us  more 
adequately.  This  is  to  act  indeed  as  faith  demands.  This 
is  to  act  as  we,  worms  of  the  earth,  are  called  to  do  in 
studying  a  Revelation  from  the  eternal  and  infinite  God. 

2.  We  must  give  to  the  last  and  finishing  portion  of 
Revelation  that  wkicht  which  it  may  ji  stly  claim. 
For  as  it  has  pleased  God  to  make  the  discoveries  of  his 
grace  gradual,  from  the  first  dawn  of  promise  to  the  full 
efi'ulsience  of  the  gospel  day,  we  must  follow  the  augment- 
ing light,  and  expound  all  the  preceding  instructions  in  the 
tone  and  glory  of  the  consummating  development.  This  is 
more  important,  as  our  Lord  expressly  promised  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  guide  the  apostles  into  the  fulness  of  that  truth 
which  they  were  not  able  to  bear,  and  which  he  did  not  dis- 
cover, durinir  his  abode  upon  earth.  Not  that  we  are  to 
undervalue  the  preceding  portions  of  the  sacred  records,  or 
to  omit  giving  a  proportionate  importance  to  all  its  instruc- 
tions; but  we  are  to  bestow  the  largest  share  of  attention  on 
the  evangelical  economy,  and  more  especially  on  the  apos- 
tolical epistles,  because  they  contain  the  last  and  most  ex- 
plicit declarations  of  the   divine   will.     To    confine   our 


LECT.    XXIV. J  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  325 

reorards  to  the  Psalms,  the  Sermon  on  the  mount,  the  Gos- 
pels, is  not  faith  but  self-will.  To  stop  at  the  standard  of 
the  Mosaic  or  prophetical  discoveries,  is  to  depreciate  the 
apostolical.  To  linger  about  the  foot  of  the  mountain  of 
inspiration,  instead  of  ascending  to  its  summit  and  taking 
the  commanding  views  and  the  widened  prospects  which 
there  stretch  around,  is  neither  honorable  to  God  nor  advan- 
tageous to  the  interest  of  truth.  It  is  to  lose  all.  It  is  to 
sink  down  to  natural  reason  and  a  darker  dispensation  and 
preparatory  truth,  when  God  calls  us  to  the  accomplishing 
and  perfect  revelation  of  his  will.  Our  rules,  therefore,  of 
interpretation  will  be  misapplied,  or  rather  will  be  insuffi- 
cient, if  we  bring  down  the  gospel  dispensation  to  the  pre- 
vious imperfect  and  introductory  ones,  instead  of  elevating 
all  the  preceding  portions  of  the  Bible  by  that  which  closes 
and  illustrates  the  whole.  And  human  nature  so  strongly 
tends  to  deterioration,  to  low  views  of  truth,  to  self-reliance, 
that  the  stronger  guard  is  necessary  in  our  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  to  watch  the  divine  tract,  and  rise  with  the  rising 
light  of  inspiration. 
3.     It   follows  that  we  must  not   allow  what  is  tempo- 

RAUY,    LOCAL,    AND    EXTRAORDINARY,  TO    HIDE    THE    LUSTKE  OF 

WHAT  IS  PERMANENT  AND  BINDING.  For  the  Bible  was  not 
written  for  one  age  merely,  or  one  country,  or  one  portion 
of  the  church;  but  for  all  times,  all  places,  all  circumstan- 
ces. The  Bible  is  not  merely  the  inheritance  of  Europe  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  but  was  the  guide  of  Asia  and 
Africa  in  many  preceding  ages;  and  is  to  be  the  teacher  of 
the  whole  world  in  some  future  time.  The  Bible  contains 
the  Patriarchal  and  Mosaical  covenants,  which  have  passed 
away;  as  well  as  the  evangelical,  which  remains.  The 
Bible  gives  the  temporary  events  of  the  first  establishment 
of  the  gospel,  and  the  extraordinary  powers  exercised  by 
Moses  and  the  prophets,  and  by  Christ  and  his  apostles;  as 
well  as  the  permanent  and  ordinary  doctrines  and  promises 
which  are  to  illuminate  and  sustain  the  church  in  all  times. 
There  is,  therefore,  an  obvious  distinction  to  be  made  be- 
tween temporary,  local,  and  extraordinary  matters,  and  those 
which  are  of  undeviating  and  paramount  obligation.     Hu- 


326  LECTUBE3    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXIV. 

man  nature  loves  ceremonies,  pomp,  external  appearance. 
Human  nature  soon  f()r<^ets  the  infinite  grace  and  power  of 
the  Christian  Redemption,  and  loses  herself  amidst  the  fig- 
ures and  adumbrations  of  the  law,  the  enactments  of  the 
Jewish  polity,  the  directions  and  rules  laid  down  for  the 
early  churches.  Human  nature  is  especially  in  danger  of 
merging  the  sanctifying  and  permanent  influence  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  in  the  temporary  and  extraordinary  power  of 
miraculous  operations.  The  interpreter  of  Scripture  must 
modify  and  elevate  his  views  by  this  important  considera- 
tion. Much,  no  doubt,  is  local  and  peculiar  in  the  Bible, 
which,  under  the  Christian  dispensation,  is  either  not  bind- 
ing at  all,  or  not  binding  to  the  extent  that  it  was  under 
the  law.  The  prophets  have  much  local  matter.  The  di- 
vine mission  of  our  Lord  has  much  peculiar  to  his  office. 
The  extraordinary  powers  of  the  apostles,  and  the  wonder- 
ful gifts  of  the  Spirit,  which  ceased  after  the  days  of  the 
first  Christians,  make  a  considerable  difference  in  the  mode 
of  the  doctrines  delivered,  in  the  confirmation  of  religion, 
and  in  the  evidences  of  grace  and  faith. 

Yet,  in  the  midst  of  all  this,  there  is  a  grand,  exalted,  per- 
manent doctrine,  and  explication  of  the  divine  will  designed 
for  all  times;  manifestations  of  God's  purposes  of  salvation 
in  Christ  Jesus,  which  remain  ever  the  same;  operations  of 
grace  on  the  fallen  heart  of  man,  and  rules  of  duty  for  his 
conduct,  which  are  similar  in  every  age.  Faith,  then,  must 
keep  her  eye  on  this  capital  distinction,  and  acquire  the 
habit  of  separating,  without  injuring  or  weakening,  the  di- 
vine instructions. 

4.     It  is  only  an  extension  of  the  same  remark  to  say, 
that  we  must  distinguish  between  real  and  vital  Chhis- 

TIANITY,  AND  WH4T  CONSTITUTES  A  MEKELV  NOMINAL  AD- 
HERENCE TO  ITS  EXTERNAL  ORDINANCES.  For  here,  again, 
nature  is  ever  prone  to  fail.  To  have  the  form  of  godliness, 
and  yet  deny  the  power  thereof^  is  the  common  disease  of  the 
visible  church,  and  will  drag  down  all  our  interpretations, 
unless  the  matter  of  Revelation,  as  contained  in  an  inspired 
volume,  and  having  a  character  peculiar  to  itself,  elevate 

(h)  2  Tim.  iii.  5. 


LECT.    XXIV.]       EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  327 

and  sustain  our  minds.  When  once  we  have  imbibed,  by  a 
lively  faith  in  God's  testimony,  vvhat  real  Christianity  is, 
what  is  the  scriptural  standard  of  sin  and  holiness,  vvhat  is 
meant  by  a  contrite  heart,  by  pardon  and  justification  and 
peace  in  the  blood  of  Christ,  by  a  life  of  holy  love  and  obe- 
dience and  communion  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by 
a  separation  in  taste  and  pursuit  from  the  pomps  and  van- 
ities of  this  wicked  world.  When  all  this  is  understood;  and 
when  the  opposite  points  of  the  utter  insufficiency  of  mere 
knowledge,  of  a  mere  adherence  to  the  name  of  Christian, 
a  mere  discharge  of  outward  duties,  a  mere  participation  in 
sacraments,  a  mere  historical  faith  and  dead  works  are  also 
perceived  and  appreciated,  then  we  must  be  governed  by 
the  mighty  discovery.  We  must  not  waste  our  time,  nor 
fritter  down  our  attention,  upon  externals  and  forms,  and 
the  tithing  of  mint  and  anise  and  cummin,  whilst  we  insen- 
sibly lose  sight  of  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law  and  gos- 
pel. We  must  beware  of  the  strong  propensity  of  nature  to 
lower  the  importance  and  explain  away  the  injunctions  of 
Revelation  in  its  peculiar  characters. 

We  must,  therefore,  not  apply  the  language  addressed  to 
the  first  churches,  where  all,  or  nearly  all,  were  true  con- 
verts, to  churches  where  scarcely  any  are.  We  must  not 
argue  from  the  purity  of  Christian  bodies  when  few  and 
scattered,  and  under  persecutions,  and  separated  from 
the  civil  authority;  to  Christian  bodies  when  numerous, 
and  combined  in  nations,  and  enjoying  external  peace, 
and  sustained  by  Christian  governments.  The  nature 
of  the  case  must  modify  the  application  of  our  princi- 
ples. We  must  keep  in  mind  the  broad  distinction  be- 
tween spiritual  life  and  spiritual  death;  between  vigorous 
and  primitive  Christianity,  and  feeble  and  worldly;  between 
the  church  when  persecuted  and  discharged  of  mere  for- 
malists, and  the  church  when  at  peace  and  filled  with  them; 
between  vvhat  constitutes  real  and  vital  Christianity,  and 
what  is  only  nominal  and  external. 

5.     We  must  also  ever  bear  in  mind,  that  the  use  and 

PLACE  AND  RELATIVE  BEARINGS  OF  EVERY  TRUTH,  ARE  TO 
BE  DERIVED  FROM  THE  ScRIPTURES,  AS  WELL  AS  THE  TRUTH 


328  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIV. 

ITSELF.  This  remark  diirtrs  from  the  preceding  ones. 
Those  went  rather  to  guard  the  interpreter  who  was  in  dan- 
ger on  the  side  of  tameness  and  worldly  mindedness — this 
and  one  or  two  following  ones,  are  more  designed  for  those 
whose  perils  spring  from  the  common  corruption  of  our  na- 
ture, but  in  an  opposite  direction.  The  peculiar  inspiration 
of  the  Bible,  not  only  excludes  cold  and  heartless  interpre- 
tation, but  excessive  and  rash.  The  place  and  consequen- 
ces and  use  of  each  truth,  are  to  be  attended  to,  as  well  as 
the  truth  itself.  We  are  apt  to  take  the  truths  of  Scrip- 
ture; and,  having  formed  them  into  a  series  of  propositions, 
to  think  ourselves  at  liberty  to  use  them  as  we  will,  expound 
them  as  we  will,  put  them  together  into  a  compact  whole  as 
we  will,  draw  inferences  from  them  as  we  will.  But  this 
is  not  the  Bible.  This  is  not  to  interpret  but  to  enact  the 
law.  This  is  not  to  give  to  God's  inspired  word  its  proper 
province,  but  to  contract  its  limits  according  to  our  own 
imagination. 

Humble  faith,  indeed,  aided  by  the  suggestions  which 
common  sense  furnishes,  will  guard  against  fundamental 
errors  in  these  respects;  but  the  divisions  and  controversies 
and  heresies  which  have  taken  their  rise  from  a  neglect  of 
this  obvious  rule,  make  it  important  to  dwell  somewhat 
fully  upon  it. 

Our  duty  in  interpreting  an  inspired  Book,  is  to  consider, 
not  only  the  statements  of  it  in  their  broadest  features,  but 
in  all  their  ramifications.  We  take  the  fall  and  corruption 
of  man — but  this  is  not  enough — we  must  examine  the  way 
in  which  the  doctrine  is  introduced,  the  uses  to  which  it  is 
applied,  and  the  accompanying  truths  which  are  found  to 
surround  it.  We  take  the  purposes  and  decrees  of  Al- 
mighty God — we  deduce  the  doctrine — but  this  is  not 
enough,  unless  we  conjoin  the  proportionate  space  it  fills, 
the  connection  in  which  it  stands,  the  churches  or  individ- 
uals to  which  it  is  addressed,  the  practical  temper  and  feel- 
ing enforced  by  it.  So  as  to  all  the  doctrines  of  Scrif)ture. 
The  place,  the  bearing,  the  use,  the  proportion,  are  as 
much  matters  of  Revelation,  and  are  as  much  to  be  follow- 
ed out  in  their  details,  as  the  doctrines  themselves;  or  else 


LECT.   XXIV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  329 

the  foundation  will  he  of  God,  but  the  superstructure  of 
man;  the  premises  infallible,  but  the  conclusions  fallible; 
the  materials  of  supernatural  temper,  the  building  of  nat- 
ural. 

The  wheels  in  a  complicated  and  delicate  machine,  if 
taken  separately  and  dissevered  from  tlieir  accompanying 
parts,  lose  all  their  value.  View  them  together,  working 
the  one  in  this  way,  and  the  other  in  that;  some  moving 
vertically,  others  horizontally — the  cogs  on  the  circle  of  one 
playing  into  the  indented  surface  of  another,  and  all  regu- 
lated by  tiie  skill  of  the  mechanic — and  the  result  is  beauti- 
ful and  surprising. 

But  if  I  take  a  single  wheel  of  a  watch,  as  men  take  a 
single  doctrine  of  Revelation.  If  I  assert  that  the  wheel 
is  really  a  part,  a  constituent  part  of  tlie  curious  machine; 
as  men  affirm  that  the  doctrine.  Predestination  for  example, 
is  a  real  and  constituent  part  of  the  inhnitc  scheme  of  re- 
demption— what  avails  such  an  insulated  affirmation.''  I 
ask  where  are  the  other  wheels,  where  the  combination  fixed 
by  the  presiding  hand  of  the  Maker,  where  the  main  spring, 
where  the  practical  result  in  the  indication  of  the  hour  of 
the  day  and  the  regulation  of  human  alfairs — as  I  ask  where 
are  the  doctrines  which  surround  the  one  in  question;  where 
is  the  combination  of  truths  fixed  by  the  inspiring  Spirit, 
where  are  the  main  priiiciples,  where  is  the  practical  indica- 
tion of  my  feelings  and  duty?  The  whole  Bible — the  whole 
doctrine  as  stated  in  the  Bil;le — the  whole  bearing  and  in- 
fluence  of  the  doctrine — the  whole  relative  position  of  it  as 
to  other  doctrines — all  the  inferences  and  deductions  from 
it,  must  be  sought  for  in  the  same  divine  records  where  the 
princi[)le  itself  is  revealed,  in  order  to  entitle  our  statements 
to  the  high  commendation  of  being  scriptural  and  author- 
itative. 

But  we  pass  on  to  observe, 

6.     That  we  must  not  force    the   simple  meaning  of 

SCRIPTUKE,    either    TO    EXPHESS    OR    EXCLUDE    MYSTERIES  EC- 

cording  to  our   turn  of  mind.     Man   is   fond  of  extremes. 
But  all  the  parts  of  Scripture  are  to  be  received.     They  are 
all  of  equal  authority,  though  not  all  of  equal  importance. 
42 


330-  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXIV. 

They  all  proceed  from  infinite  wisdom;  and  that  wisdom 
fixes  their  respective  importance,  as  well  as  makes  them  a 
part  of  the  Revelation.  In  a  state  of  incipient  faith,  men 
are  apt  to  pass  over  all  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  gos- 
pel, which  they  do  not  strongly  feel  the  need  of,  or  do  not 
know  how  to  apply.  In  a  state  of  warm  Christian  feeling 
and  advanced  familiarity  with  truth,  men  are  apt  in  some 
degree,  perhaps,  to  omit  and  pass  by  the  doctrines  which 
rest  on  natural  religion,  and  the  primary  duties  which  im- 
mediately flow  from  conscience  and  the  accountableness  of 
man.  They  consider  them  as  not  only  subordinate — which 
they  are — but  useless,  which  they  are  not.  All  Revelation 
takes  for  granted  the  religion  of  nature,  and  cannot  be  un- 
derstood nor  applied  without  that  religion  being  admitted 
either  explicitly  or  implicitly.  It  is  generally  admitted  im- 
plicitly, conscience  is  followed,  reason  is  taken  as  a  minis- 
ter, the  respf)nsible  nature  of  man  is  acted  upon  without  con- 
troversy, and  without  dire(;t  reflection.  But  it  is  important 
to  remember,  that  Scripture  is  not  to  be  forced  either  to 
express  or  exclude  mysteries.  All  the  truths  in  Scripture 
are  of  equal  authority.  The  subordinate  are  to  be  receiv- 
ed, so  as  not  to  exclude  the  highest;  and  the  highest  so  as 
not  to  omit  the  subordinate.  No  one  truth  is  to  be  so  in- 
terpreted or  so  employed,  as  to  contradict  any  other  truth. 

It  is  especially  necessary,  in  the  present  day,  to  remem- 
ber that  we  are  not  to  search  for  the  highest  mysteries  of 
Scripture,  where  they  were  never  intended  to  be  found,  but 
to  be  content  with  the  different  matters  of  the  divine  Reve- 
lation as  they  are  simply  set  before  us.  Some  of  the  most 
fatal  errors  in  the  church  have  arisen  from  a  desire  to  find 
the  loftiest  discoveries  of  Revelation,  concerning  Jesus 
Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  the  Patriarchal  history,  and 
in  the  plainest  parts  of  the  Books  of  Kings.  The  mischiefs 
arising  from  Origen's  fanciful  scheme  of  old;  the  errors  of 
Cocceius,  in  modern  times;  the  forcible  application  of 
every  part  and  portion  of  the  Psalms  to  the  Messiah  and 
the  eagerness  to  find  out  what  is  called  a  spiritual  sense, 
in  opposition  to  the  literal  meaning  of  God's  word,  have 
all  their  origin  in  a  discontent  with  the  proportion  in  which 


LECT.    XXIV.]  EVIDENCES    OP     CHRISTIANITY.  331 

the  mysteries  of  Scripture  are  found  in  that  divine  book,  and 
in  the  wild  notion  of  imposing  unheard  of,  and  now  and  re- 
mote and  unnatural  senses  upon  the  phiinestnarratives  ormost 
devotional  parts  of  the  divine  Records.  The  effect  is  to  take 
away  all  meaning  from  the  whole  Bible,  to  opjen  the  door 
for  every  extravagance,  and  to  destroy  that  fine  and  beautiful 
variety  which  now  characterises  the  inspired  book  of  God. 

The  Holy  Spirit  has  in  every  part  of  Scripture,  one 
grand  meaning,  and  conveys  one  leading  instruction,  though 
others  may  by  fair  inference  be  deduced.  This  is  the  real  spir- 
itual meaning,  that  is,  the  meaning  of  a  book  which  relates 
to  spiritual  things,  and  comes  dovvn  from  God  to  man.  But 
some  call  the  spiritual  meaning  a  new  meaning  put  on 
Scripture  by  a  lively  fancy.  Types,  prophecies,  parables 
have,  of  course,  a  meaning  beyond  that  which  they  express. 
But  in  all  these  it  is  the  judgment  which  is  the  interpreter, 
according  to  the  established  rules  of  language.  Those  parts 
of  Scripture  which  are  not  of  this  character,  have  only  one 
meaning,  and  that  is  the  literal;  and  our  concern  is  not  to 
hunt  for  a  new  meaning  which  we  call  the  spiritual,  but  to 
deduce  useful  instruction  from  the  plain  sense  of  the  pa'ssage. 
Otherwise  we  may  make  the  Scriptures  mean  what  we 
please;  we  may  impose  a  sense  of  our  own;  and  there  will 
remain  no  certainty  in  Revelation,  but  we  may  prove  from 
it  error  as  readily  as  truth.  The  Papist,  the  Arian,  the  So- 
cinian,  the  Neologian,  applaud  the  .suggestion,  and  enjploy 
it  but  too  successfully  to  their  own  purposes.  And  the 
piety  and  good  intentions  of  some  who  first  propose  such 
senses,  do  not  lessen  the  mischief  of  the  scheme  on  which 
they  proceed,  but  render  it  more  plausible  and  danger- 
ous. ' 

7.  But  I  observe,  lastly,  that  the  peculiar  character  of 
Inspiration  belonging  to  the  Bible  should  prevent  our  at- 
tempting TO  REDUCE  TRUTH  TO  A  TOO  MINUTE  HUMAN  SYS- 
TEM,   WHICH    PEKHAPS  GoD   HAS   NEVER  INTENDED  WE    SHOULD 

BE  ABJ.E  TO  DO.  Souic  {)lan  of  truth,  in  its  great  outlines, 
is,  indeed,  essential — the  apostles  continually  give  such 
schemes.    The  deduction  of  consequences  is  also  necessary, 

(i)  ScoU. 


332  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT. 


XXIV, 


for  the  purposes  of  discipline  nnd  godd  order  in  Christian 
churches.  Confessions  nnd  article.'^  of  fiiith  have  therefore 
their  use.  But  to  frame  a  detaded  and  minute  system  of 
truth  in  the  way  of  what  is  termed  systematic  Theolojry,  is 
to  forget  the  majesty  and  simphcity  of  truth,  to  fr^rgel  the 
limits  of  the  human  understanding,  to  forget  all  we  have 
remarked  so  frequently  on  the  ignorance  of  man,  to  forget 
the  author  and  infinite  perfections  of  the  inspired  Volume. 
The  premises  are  not  all  revealed.  We  know  in  part  only. 
The  mind  of  the  interpreter  is  soon  biassed  in  the  exposi- 
tion of  particular  passages,  when  the  trammels  of  a  system 
hang  around  him.  The  frankness  and  simplicity  of  truth  is 
lost.  Many  of  the  most  im[)ortant  addresses  to  the  con- 
sciences of  sinners  are  weakened,  and  much  of  the  caution- 
ary instruction  designed  for  true  Christians  is  omitted.  Our 
system  becomes  our  Bible.  We  start  from  its  propositions 
as  our  first  principles,  r.nd  the  authority  of  the  all  perfect 
word  is  virtually  undermined.  J  Faith  itself  is  contracted 
and  enfeebled.  Indeed  this  is  the  one  point  which  we 
have  been  endeavoring  to  illustrate  and  to  which  we  re- 
turn. Our  whole  subject  is  involved  in  a  true  and  lively 
faith.  The  direct  suggestions  and  aids  it  furnishes — the 
helps  which  it  derives  from  common  sense  and  sound  laws 
of  language,  and  the  considerations  arising  from  the  pecu- 
liar character  of  inspiration  attached  to  the  divine  records, 
are  only  so  many  methods  which  the  principle  of  faith  em- 

(j)  "For  the  obiaining  of  ilie  iiifomiaiion,  it  resieih  upon  the  true  and  sound  in- 
terpretation of  the  Scriptures,  which  are  the  fountains  of  the  waters  of  life.  '1  he  in- 
terpretations of  Scripture  arc  of  two  sorts;  methodical,  and  solute  or  at  large.  For 
this  divine  water,  which  excetlelh  so  much  that  of  Jacob's  well,  is  drawn  forth  much 
in  the  same  kind  as  natural  water  uselh  lo  be  out  of  wells  and  fountains;  cither  it  is 
first  forced  up  into  a  cistern,  and  from  thence  fetched  and  derived  for  use;  or  else 
it  is  drawn  nnd  received  in  buckets  and  vessels  immediately  where  it  spring-eth: 
the  former  sort  whereof,  though  it  seem  lo  be  more  ready,  yet  in  mj  judgment  is 
more  subject  to  corrupt  This  is  that  method  wliich  hath  cxliibited  to  us  the  scho- 
lastical  divinity;  whereby  divinity  hath  been  reduced  into  an  an,  as  into  a  cistern,  and 
the  streams  of  doctrine  or  positions  fetched  and  derived  from  thence. 

"Certainly  as  those  wines  which  flow  from  the  first  treading  of  the  grapes,  are 
sweeter  and  better  than  those  forced  out  by  the  press,  which  gives  them  the  roughness 
of  the  husk  anil  the  stone;  so  are  those  doctrines  best  and  wholesomest  which  flow 
from  a  gentle  crush  of  the  Scriptures,  and  are  not  wrung  into  controversies  anil  com- 
mon place  And  this  ourselves  we  set  down  as  wanting,  under  the  title  of,  The 
FIRST  FLOWiNcs  OF  ScRiPTURK." — Lord  Bacon. 


LECT.    XXIV.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANIY.  333 

ploys  in  her  exercise  on  the  testimony  of  God.  The  more 
simple  and  vigorous  that  principle  is,  the  more  will  it  apply 
itself  to  the  devout  study  of  the  Scriptures  in  all  their  ex- 
tent, in  all  their  variety  of  matter,  in  all  their  authority  upon 
the  conscience.  In  short,  the  reception  of  the  Christian 
religion,  as  of  divine  origin,  will  carry  with  it  all  the  details 
of  that  Revelation,  and  lead  to  all  the  means  of  ascertaining 
what  it  is  which  they  include. 

But  here  an  objection  meets  us.  A  diversity  of  interpre- 
tation is  said  to  exist  among  sincere  and  devout  Christians, 
and  to  render  the  tenor  of  the  Scripture  so  far  uncertain, 
and  embarrass  the  mind  of  the   sincere   inquirer. 

To  this,  we  reply,  that  the  fact  itself  has  been  exaggerated 
— that,  whatever  these  differences  are,  they  are  not  charge- 
able upon  Christianity^that  they  fall  on  subordinate  mat- 
ters for  the  most  part — that  they  may  be  avoided  in  prac- 
tice— and  that  the  universal  church  has  presented  but  one 
front  of  truth  to  mankind. 

I      say      THE      FACT       IIA5      BEEN      GREATLY      EXAGGERATED. 

There  have  been  diverse  interpretations  no  doubt;  but  they 
have  been  trifling  and  inconsiderable,  compared  with  the 
direct  and  universal  truths  which  Christianity  has  taun^ht. 
Misguided  men,  though  pious,  have  erred  and  do  err;  but 
let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand 
blessings,  which  these  very  men  receive  and  act  upon.  Ari- 
anism,  Socinianism,  and  Neologism  have,  indeed,  caused 
great  evils  by  their  corruptions  of  the  sacred  word;  but  this 
is  infidelity  under  the  guise  and  cloke  of  Christianity,  de- 
stroying the  faith  of  Christians.  A  cold  and  tame  interpre- 
tation, also,  of  the  Christian  Records  evaporates  all  their 
force;  but  this  is  formality  under  the  name  of  faith.  To  all 
who  receive  the  divine  Revelation  with  a  true  faith — and 
with  none  other  are  we  now  concerned — the  interpretation 
of  its  records  is  simple,  and  the  diversities  of  opinion  in  no 
way  weaken  the  mighty  force  of  the  truths  communicated. 

But     THE     DIFFERENCES,     WHATEVER     THEY    ARE,    ARE     NOT 

CHARGEABi-K  UPON  CHRISTIANITY — just  as  the  unnumbcred 
evils  to  which  the  works  of  God  in  nature  are  abused,  are 
not  chargeable  on  natural  religion.     No:  the  folly  of  man  is 


334  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXIV. 

not  to  be  imputed  to  the  infinitely  wise  God.  Man  perverts 
every  blessing  in  sonic  degree.  The  depravity  of  his  affec- 
tions, the  weakness  of  his  reasoning  faculties,  the  different 
portion  of  original  endowment  and  of  means  of  improve- 
ment with  which  he  is  intrusted,  all  occasion  a  variety  of 
judgment  on  some  of  the  declarations  of  God's  will,  both  in 
the  book  of  nature  and  the  book  of  grace — but  none  pre- 
vent the  operation  of  truth,  the  obligation  of  conscience, 
the  main  and  commanding  discoveries  of  the  divine  glory 
which  are  made.  Nay,  the  very  diversities  of  interpre- 
tation on  minor  details,  prove  the  integrity  of  the  inquirers, 
the  independence  of  mind  with  which  they  have  sought 
truth,  and  the  sincerity  of  the  faith  with  which  they  embrace 
the  Christian  Revelation. 

For  these  interpretations  fall  for  the  most  pakt  on 
SUBORDINATE  .MATTKHs,  and  merely  serve  as  a  wholesome 
exercise  of  humility  towards  God,  and  forbearance  and  kind- 
ness towards  man.  What  have  the  diversities  of  opinion  as 
to  the  discipline  of  churches  done,  but  set  various  bodies  of 
Christians  to  work  with  redoubled  activity,  to  prf)secute 
with  warmer  zeal  one  great  object?  And  even  the  differen- 
ces of  interpretation  on  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Rev- 
elation, affect  not  the  doctrines  themselves,  but  some  cir- 
cumstances, some  particular  uses  or  inferences  from  them, 
whilst  the  capital  points  remain  untouched. 

And  the  remaining  evils  of  these  different  interpretations 
may  be  diminished  and  avoided  in  practice,  if  the  Scrip- 
tures be  studied  with  adequate  humility;  if  the  main  doc- 
trines and  duties  of  Christianity  are  kept  prommently  in  view; 
if  the  heart  be  faithful  to  the  love  of  a  crucified  Saviour.  A 
practical  use  of  the  most  disputed  texts  may  be  readily 
found,  from  tiie  design  of  the  sacred  penman;  whilst  the 
very  diversities  are  calls  for  further  improvement,  larger 
measures  of  attention  and  prayer,  growing  a(((uaintance,  by 
the  comparison  of  different  proposals  and  opinions,  with  the 
am|)litude  and  virtue  of  the  word  of  God. 

And,  after  all,  the  universal  chi  rch  has  presented 
BUT  ONE  front  OF  TRUTH  TO  MANKIND.  Controversics 
have  been  temporary;  new  and  strange  interpretations  have 


L.ECT.    XXIV.J  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  335 

seldom  outlived  the  age  which  gave  them  birth,  diflerences 
of  judgment  have  been  conciliated.  In  the  mean  time,  the 
whole  body  of  sincere  and  devout  Christians — those  who 
really  receive  the  Christian  Revelation — have  presented  one 
unvaried  front  of  commanding  truth;  they  have  expounded 
the  Scriptures  in  one  way;  they  have  spoken  one  language; 
they  have  been  animated  with  one  love  to  their  God  and 
their  fellow-creatures,  for  God's  sake;  they  have  found  the 
book  of  inspiration,  emanating  from  the  fountain  of  wisdom, 
resptmd  to  the  language  of  their  wants,  fulfil  the  urgency 
of  their  desires;  and  supply  all  the  direction  and  joy  need- 
ful for  them  on  their  way  to  heaven. 

The  whole  objection,  in  short,  is  frivolous:  it  first  misun- 
stands  the  facts,  and  then  magnifies  tliem;  and  then  argues 
falsely  from  them.  No;  there  are  no  differences  of  interpre- 
tation as  to  main  points  of  the  divine  Records;  and  the 
diversities  that  do  exist  on  less  particulars,  are  as  the  dust 
of  the  balance,  or  the  moats  in  the  sunbeam,  compared 
with  the  grand,  controlling,  divine  discoveries  of  salvation 
to  ruined  man. 

But  we  hasten  to  apply  for  an  instant  the  whole  subject 
to  ourselves.  The  real  question  is,  What  kind  of  faith  is  it 
that  we   repose  in  the   Holy  Scriptures.^     Our  interpkkta- 

TION    WILL     PARTAKE    OF    THE      NATURE    OF    THE    FAITH      FROM 

WHICH  IT  SPRINGS.  Evcry  man  is  an  interpreter  of  Scrip- 
ture— not  in  public,  perhaps, — but  to  his  own  heart,  to  his 
children,  to  his  family.  And  every  one  interprets  according 
to  the  moral  and  religious  state  of  his  mind.  This  divides 
the  readers  of  the  Bible  into  two  grand  classes;  those 
who  have  a  true  and  living  faith,  the  operation  of  grace — 
and  those  who  have  only  a  dead  and  speculative  assent, 
the  produce  of  mere  unassisted  nature. 

The  vital  Christianity  of  the  heart  can  alone  in- 
terpret aright,  because  it  reads  with  faith,  it  reads  with 
genuine  submission  of  soul,  it  reads  with  an  honest  desire 
to  know  the  will  of  God,  it  reads  with  some  experience  of 
the  blessings  treated  of,  it  reads  with  prayer  for  the  Holy 
Spirit.  This  kind  of  Christianity  can  employ  aright  the 
various  rules  of  ordinary  language,  under  the  guidance  of 


336  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXIV. 

plain  sense.  This  kind  of  Christianity  can  be  aided  by  the 
suggestions  we  iiavc  otVcred  on  the  pe<;uliar  character  of 
inspiration  attached  to  the  Christian  records.  But  a 
MERELY  NOMINAL  AND  SPECULATIVE  Christianity  can  do 
nothing  as  an  interpreter  of  the  divine  word.  It  may  dis- 
cuss some  incidental  matters,  arrange  historical  testimonies, 
settle  a  genealogy,  argue  a  various  reading;  but  what  can 
it  make  of  the  infinitely  momentous  discoveries  of  Revela- 
tion which  faith  alone  can  receive  and  apply.''  This  Chris- 
tianity wants  not  an  interpreter,  but  conversion;  not  direc- 
tion, but  life;  not  the  common  aids  of  literary  remark,  but 
the  transcendent  helps  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

What,  THEN,  IS  your  interpretation  of  the  holy  book.'* 
Tell  me  its  nature,  and  I  will  tell  you  what  your  faith  is, 
and   what  the  state  of  the  mind  in  which  that  faith  resides. 

But  the  case  is  plain.  Multitudes  of  professed  Christians 
read  the  Bible  with  a  veil  upon  their  hearts.  They  see,  but 
perceive  not;  they  read,  but  understand  not;  they  hear,  but 
they  comprehend  not.  The  defect  is  not  in  the  object,  but 
the  faculty;  not  in  the  book  of  God,  but  in  the  will  of  man; 
not  in  the  smaller  errors  of  interpretation,  but  in  the  want 
of  the  first  elements  and  materials  of  religious  perception. 

Let  each  one,  then,  who  is  conscious  that  he  has  never 
understood  his  Bible — that  it  has  been  as  a  sealed  book — 
that  its  mysteries  have  been  a  stumbling  block,  and  its  doc- 
trines as  foolishness  to  him — humble  himself  before  the 
throne  of  mercy,  and  implore  the  grace  of  the  illu- 
minating Spirit;  let  him  seek  that  aid  which  removes  im- 
pediments and  obstacles  from  the  mind;  which  changes  the 
heart;  which  abases  the  soul  under  a  sense  of  sin,  and  ele- 
vates it  with  the  hope  of  pardon  in  Jesus  Christ.  Then  all 
will  be  clear.  Interpretation  will  become,  as  I  have  before 
observed,  rather  intuition  than  reasoning.  All  the  mysteries 
of  salvation  will  lie  open  in  their  practical  use  to  his  eager 
view;  the  import  and  force  of  every  part  of  Scripture  will 
commend  itself  to  his  conscience;  the  inward  possession  of 
the  blessings  treated  of  will  correspond  with  the  description 
of  them,  as  the  impression  on  the  softened  wax  answers  to 


LECT.  XXIV.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  337 

the  seal;  and  diversities  of  interpretation   will   shrink   into 
their  true  insignificance. 

This  is  the  grand  distinction.  Do  we  interpret  the  Bible 
by  grace  or  by  nature;  by.  mere  reason,  or  by  the  aid  of  the 
Holy  Spirit;  by  dint  of  labor  and  study,  or  by  experience; 
by  the  powers  of  science  and  the  application  of  intellect, 
or  the  voice  of  conscience  and  the  feelings  of  the  heart.'' 
Do  we  rest  satisfied  with  the  shell  and  surface  of  Christian- 
ity, external  and  incidental  matters,  a  theoretic  scheme  of 
doctrine,  and  the  creed  of  a  national  churcii;  or  df)we  pene- 
trate to  the  life  and  interior  meaning  of  Chrisiianity,  reach 
its  essential  discoveries,  understand  its  scheme  of  salvation, 
and  adhere  to  it  from  an  inward  perception  of  its  unspeak- 
able benefits.'* 

If,  on  this  all-important  question,  any  doubt  remains,  let 
us  solve  it  by  skkking  ftioRE  earnestly  and  uiccisivkly 
For  the  aids  of  gkace;  let  us  examine  our  state  before 
God;  let  us,  by  prayer,  imbibe  and  drink  in  the  heavenly 
influences;  let  us  never  rest  satisfied  till  we  know  the  truth, 
and  the  truth  has  made  us  free  from  the  chains  and  degrada- 
tion of  sin  and  Satan. 

And  let  the  sincere  student  of  Scripture,  whose  faith  and 
love  are  bringing  into  his  heart  all  the  treasures  of  the 
divine  word,  grow  and  advance  in  that  HUMiLixy  and  ten- 
derness OF  spiiiiT,  which  are  the  best  preservatives  against 
the  minor  evils  of  different  interpretations  of  Scripture. 
The  real  danger  from  these  evils  is  not  from  the  passages  thus 
expounded  in  various  manners,  but  from  the  self-will,  the 
pertinacity,  the  dogmatism,  the  spirit  of  controversy,  which 
the  great  .spiritual  adversary  may  take  occasion  to  infuse. 
Humility  and  love  preserve  our  own  rights  of  judgment 
entire,  but  avoid  tlie  bitter  fruits  of  obstinacy  and  division. 
The  vital  and  fundamental  points  are  held  in  meekness  and 
charily;  the  incidental  ones  in  silent  and  unobtrusive  opin- 
ion; whilst  that  blessed  time  is  waited  for,  in  which  the 
operations  of  the  intellect  and  the  emotions  of  the  heart 
shall  be  for  ever  harmonized  in  the  revelations  of  a  world, 
where  knowledge  and  love  will  be  united  in  their  highest 
e.xercises,  never  to  be  disjoined  or  clouded  through  eternity. 
43 


L.ECTIJRE    XXV. 


THE     UNIVERSAL     OBLIGATION    WHICH    LIES 

UPON    EVERY    HUMAN      BEING     TO     OBEY 

DIVINE     REVELATION. 

John  iii.   18—21. 

He  that  beheveth,  is  not  condemned;  but  he  that  believeth  not,  is 
condemned  already,  because,  he  hath,  not  believed  in  the  name  of 
the  onhj-begotten  Son  of  God.  And  this  is  the  condemnation, 
that  light  is  come  into  the  world;  and  men  loved  darkness 
rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil.  For  every 
one  that  docth  evil,  hateth  the  light,  neither  cometh  to  the  light, 
lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved.  But  he  that  doeth  truth, 
cometh  to  the  light,  that  his  deeds  may  be  made  manifest  that 
they  are  wrought  in   God. 

We  have  done  with  the  evidences  of  Christianity;  we  have 
concluded  our  argument.  We  turn  now  to  intreaty,  to  feel- 
ing, to  the  impression  which  we  desire  to  leave  on  every 
heart;  to  the  universal  obligation  under  which  every  one  of 
us  lies  to  receive  the  Christian  Revelation  with  a  true  and 
lively  faith;  such  a  faith  as  carries  with  it  all  the  practical 
ends  for  which    Christianity  was  designed,  and   terminates 

in  EVERLASTING    SALVATION. 

Nothing  can  be  a  stronger  proof  of  the  corruption  of 
man,  than  that  any  topic  like  this  should  be  necessary.    We 


LECT.    XXV.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  339 

might  have  supposed  that  the  question  would  have  been  to 
convince  men  that  they  were  permitted  to  share  in  such 
vast  blessings.  We  might  have  supposed  that  the  difficulty 
would  have  been  to  persuade  them  that  the  fountain  of 
grace  and  salvation  stood  really  open  to  all;  that  God 
invited  his  fallen  creatures  to  happiness;  that  he  welcomed 
a  weary,  heavy-laden  world  to  truth  and  rest. 

And  this  is,  indeed,  the  question  with  every  penitent  and 
contrite  inquirer.  The  difficulty  is,  then,  raised,  not  upon 
man's  part,  whether  he  will  receive  the  blessing  or  not,  but 
as  it  regards  the  offended  Majesty  of  heaven — whether  it  be 
indeed  permitted  to  the  sinner  to  approach  his  footstool, 
and  drink  of  the  fountain  of  felicity  and  joy.  When  the 
heart  is  submissive,  there  is  no  want  of  simplicity  in  appre- 
ciating the  evidence;  no  want  of  eagerness  to  partake  of 
the  benefits;  but  much  fear  and  apprehension  lest  it  should 
lose  such  unspeakable  mercies  through  unworthiness  or 
unbelief. 

But  with  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  the  case  is  the  re- 
verse. Nothing  is  so  difficult  as  to  convince  them  of  the  par- 
amount obligations  of  Christianity.  They  slight  its  claims; 
they  elude  its  demands  of  faith  and  obedience;  they  efface 
from  their  hearts  the  deep  impressions  which  truth  from 
time  to  time  infixes. 

It  becomes,  therefore,  most  important  to  set  distinctly 
before  them  the  universal  obligation  under  which  every  hu- 
man being  lies,  to  submit  to  the  Christian  Revelation. 

Now,  we  may  argue  this,  or  rather  enforce  this — for  I  ab- 
stain from  further  direct  argument — by  reminding  you  that 
men  are  already  bound  to  obey  and  love  God  by  the 
STRONGEST  ANTKCKDENT  OBLIGATIONS;  that  Christianity  is  so 
excellent  in  itself,  that  the  slightest  extp-jinal  evidence  is 
sufficient  to  oblige   men   to  obey   it;  that  the    simplicity, 

VARIETY,   independence,    AND  FORCE    OF  THE  EVIDENCES  Vvith 

which  Christianity  is  actually  surrounded,  increase  this  ob- 
ligation; that  the  duty  is  augmented  by  the  particular  ad- 
vantages which  we  have  each  respectively  enjoyed;  and  that 
the  whole  is  carried  to  the  utmost  height  by  its  vast  discov- 
eries and  the  immense  interests  which  are  at  stake. 


340  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXV. 

And  do  Thou,  O  blessed  Lord  God,  vouchsafe  to  assist 
us!  Do  thou  dispose  every  ear  to  attend!  Do  thou  dissi- 
pate everv  prejudice  from  our  understandings,  and  discharge 
every  passion  from  our  hearts!  Do  thou  excite  in  each 
breast  an  ardent  desire  for  that  grace,  which  alone  can 
cause  truth  to  penetrate  and  renew  the  soul,  and  give  effica- 
cy and  success  to  all  those  evidences  with  which  thou  hast 
been  pleased  to  accompany  thy  gospel ! 

I.     VVe  observe,  in  tiie  first  place,  that  men  are  already 

BOUND  TO  LOVE  AND  OBEY  GoD  BY  THE  STRONGEST  ANTE- 
CEDENT obligations;  and  are  therefore  by  no  means  at  lib- 
erty to  receive  or  reject  Christianity  at  their  mere  option. 

The  question   is   not  between   Christianity,  and  no  moral 
and  religious  accountableness   whatever;  but  between   that 
accountableness,  dreary  and  awful,   without  assistance  and 
without  joy,  and  the  same  accountableness  relieved   by  the 
gracious  discoveries  of  Christianity.      We   are   addressing 
those  who  admit  the  bunds  of  essential  religion.     With  the 
atheist  we  have   nothing    to  do   in    the  present   argument. 
"Do  not  imagine,  then," — I   adopt   the  language  of  a  great 
living   writer, — "that   you   can  consult  your  tranquillity  by 
shaking  off' the  incumbrance  of  Revelation.     Do  not  imag- 
ine you  may  live  without  religion,  the  fear  of  God,  restrain- 
ing your  passions,  mortifying  your  lusts,  making  sacrifices 
from  a  sense   of  duty,  if  you   can  succeed  in  getting  rid  of 
the  New  Testament.      You   may  shake   off'  the  restraints  of 
the   Christian    religion;  but   yf)U   will    not   on   that  account 
shake   off'  the   restraints  of  religion.      Christianity  did   not 
give  birth  to  religion.     Christ  was  not  the  author  of  religion 
— did  not  come  into  the  world  to  teach  religion.     Had  the 
Son  of  God  not  come  ft^th  from  the  presence  of  the  Father 
into  tlie  world,  religion  would   have  remained   in  all  its  ex- 
tent and  obligation.     The  law  of  God   was  already  promul- 
gated; the  obligation  of  man   to  love  anil  serve  God  would 
have   remained   unaltered;   the  chain  which  connects  man 
with  the  Deity  undissolved.     Our  blessed  Saviour  came  not 
to  make  you  religious,  but  to  make  you  happy  by  religion. 
If  he   had  not  come,  indeed,  the   religion  of  nature  could 
only  have  breathed    the  accents    of  despair  and  misery. 


LECT.   XXV.]  KVinENCKS    OF    CHTllSTT ANITV.  341 

Whether  you  choose  to  be  the  disciples  of  Christ  or  not, 
you  are  previously  under  his  law,  and  that  law  you  have 
broken.  Let  the  New  Testament  be  a  deception — Jesus 
Christ  an  impostor;  yet  a  judgment  to  come  is  certain. 
Every  secret  thing  will  be  brought  to  light.  Whether  you 
shall  taste,  indeed,  of  the  divine  goodness,  depends  upon 
the  truth  of  the  gospel;  whether  you  entertain  any  hope  of 
pardon,  enjoy  communion  with  God  as  a  Father,  experience 
the  consolations  of  religion,  be  justified  by  faith,  and  die  in 
the  full  assurance  of  hope;  this  is  alone  the  gift  of  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ.  If  you  reject  this,  you  reject  your  remedy, 
your  medicine,  the  only  antidote  to  your  misery.  Your 
guilt,  apostacy,  ruin,  is  the  great  foundation  on  which  all 
the  statements  concerning  a  Saviour  rest;  the  things  sup- 
posed and  taken  for  granted.  Let  no  man  think  he  can 
quiet  his  mind  by  shaking  off  the  fear  of  judgment,  by  re- 
jecting revealed  religion.  The  only  consolation  you  can 
derive  by  refusing  to  be  guided  by  the  New  Testament,  is 
to  lose  the  hopes  of  religion;  to  stand,  in  relation  to  God,  as 
an  enemy,  when  you  might  have  been  reconciled  to  him  by 
the  blood  of  his  Son,  adopted  into  his  family,  and  made 
heirs  of  eternal  life.  Do  not  imagine  that  you  are  in  a  state 
of  safety,  because  you  go  out  of  hearing  of  the  voice  of 
Christ,  the  great  Deliverer." 

Nor  is  this  the  only  obligation  under  which  we  already 
lie,  with  respect  to  God  and  religion.  Another  follows. 
Let  it  never  be  forgotten,  that  if  Christianity  be  true,  it  is 
NOT  A  MATTER  LEFT  TO  OUR  OPTION  whether  We  vvill  rc- 
ceive  it  or  not.  Human  authority  cannot  constrain;  but  di- 
vine can  and  does.  It  is  a  fatal  mistake  to  suppose  that  it 
is  left  to  our  choice  whether  we  will  receive  Christianity  or 
not;  so  that  we  are  under  no  direct  moral  obligation  to  be- 
lieve in  it  and  obey  it.  On  the  contrary,  we  are  under  the 
strongest  and  most  indispensable,  supposing  the  religion  to 
be  true.  Man  is  not  left  to  his  option;  and  he  knows  he  is 
not:  his  whole  moral  nature,  his  conscience,  the  reason  of 
the  case,  his  common  understanding,  tells  him  the  obliga- 
tions he  is  under  to  submit  to  the  greatest  communication 


342  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXV. 

which  God  ever  made  to  man.  What!  when  God  has  pro- 
vided a  scheme  for  the  salvation  of  mankind  before  the 
ages;  when  he  has  proposed  that  scheme  by  many  successive 
revelations  of  himself;  when  he  has  separated  a  chosen  fam- 
ily from  the  rest  of  the  world,  to  serve  as  a  repository  of  his 
counsels;  when  he  has  sent  out  many  holy  men  and  proph- 
ets, to  signify  before  hand  the  glories  of  a  new  kingdom, 
which  he  meant  to  establish  upon  earth,  and  to  prepare  men 
for  the  reception  of  it;  when,  after  all  these  preludes,  he 
has  astonished  the  world  with  the  completion  of  his  adora- 
ble counsels,  by  sending  forth  his  only-begotten  Son,  the 
express  image  of  his  person,  to  take  upon  him  our  nature, 
and  to  suffer  and  die  for  us;  and  by  raising  up  apostles  and 
evangelists,  under  the  guidance  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  to  record 
these  amazing  transactions,  and,  by  the  attestation  of  stu- 
pendous miracles,  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  them  over 
the  face  of  the  earth:  when  this,  and  much  more  has  been 
done  by  the  Almighty,  to  usher  in  the  gospel,  think  not  that 
all  this  mighty  aparatus  is  to  be  thrown  away  on  your  ca- 
price or  obstinacy;  and  that,  after  all,  we  may  be  at  lib- 
erty to  reject  his  whole  design,  or  take  as  much  or  as  little 
of  it  as  our  wayward  fancies  should  suggest  to  us.  No:  as 
well  may  we  think  to  overturn  the  everlasting  mountains,  or 
push  the  earth  itself  from  its  centre,  as  to  defeat  or  set  aside 
one  tittle  of  that  eternal  purpose  which  God  hath  purposed 
in  Christ  Jesus.  To  whomsoever  the  sound  of  the  gospel 
comes,  whether  he  will  hear,  or  whether  he  will  forbear,  by 
that  gosj)el  he  must  stand  or  fall.  Through  faith  in  Christ, 
he  may  inherit  the  promises;  if  he  withhold  that  fiiith,  it  is 
not  at  his  option  to  have  no  concern  in  the  threatenings  of 
his  affronted  Sovereign."  Accordingly,  the  gospel  proceeds 
on  the  footing  of  my  text.  He  that  believcth,  is  exempted 
from  condemnation,  and  entitled  to  eternal  life;  but  he  that 
believeth  not,  is  condemned  already,  because  he  hatelh  the  light, 
and  comeih  not  to  the  light,  but  prefers  darkness  to  it,  from 
the  consciousness  that  his  deeds  are  evil.  For  every  one 
tha    docth  truth,  and  acts  as  an  accountable  being,  comeih 

(a)  Bishop  Hurd. 


LECT.    XXV.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  343 

to  the  light,  and  accepts  and  rejoices  in  the  gospel,  which 
sheds  it  upon  a  darkened  world. 

These,  then,  are  the  antecedent  considerations.  Whether 
Christianity  bo  true  or  not,  you  are  under  the  essential 
obligations  of  religion  as  due  from  a  creature  to  his 
Creator;  and  if  it  be  true — as  it  most  assuredly  is — it  is 
not  left  to  our  option,  but  we  are  bound  by  the  most  solemn 
sanctions  to  believe  in  it  and  obey  it.  These  are  primary 
principles.  May  your  hearts  yield  to  them!  You  see  how 
the  case  stands.  We  do  not  so  much  argue  as  entreat  and 
persuade. 

Let  us  proceed: — 

II.  To  remind  you  that  Christianity  is  so  excellent 
IN  itself,  that  the  slightest  external  evidence  is 
sufficient  to  oblige  men  to  obey  it. 

I  need  not  surely  dwell  on  this  point.  You  have  not  so 
soon  forgotten  the  adaptation  of  Christianity  to  the  obvious 
state  and  wants  of  man.**  You  have  not  so  soon  forgotten 
the  excellency  and  elevation  of  its  doctrines,'^  the  purity  and 
beauty  of  its  morals,^  the  inimitable  character  of  its  Foun- 
der," and  its  tendency  to  promote  in  the  highest  degree  the 
welfare  of  mankind.*"  The  impression  is  still  deep  of  the 
internal  constitution  and  frame-work  of  Christianity.  How 
worthy  of  God,  how  suitable  to  the  whole  state  and  desires 
and  aspirations  of  man.  Yes;  the  remedial,  consoling  na- 
ture of  the  gospel,  its  soothing  and  purifying  character,  its 
gentle  and  yet  powerful  operations  of  grace  upon  the  heart, 
its  knowledge  of  all  the  secret  springs  of  human  conduct, 
proclaim,  as  with  the  voice  of  an  angel,  the  author  from 
whence   it  sprung.      The  three  facts   there  disclosed,   the 

FALL    OF    man,    the    REDEMPTION    OF    MAN,    the    RESURRECTION 

OF  MAN,  have  the  impress  of  God  upon  them,  and  answer  to 
the  exact  necessities  of  a  ruined  world.  To  comply  with  the 
demands  of  such  a  religion,  is  to  act  on  all  the  obligations 
of  natural  religion,  only  in  a  higher  degree  and  with  new 
energy.  To  follow  it,  is  to  obey  what  conscience  dictates, 
only  in  a  purer  and  more  uniform  manner.     To  believe  in 

(b)  Led.  xiv.    (c)  Led.  xv.     (d)  Led.  xvi.      (e)  Led.  xvii.     (f )  Led.  xviii. 


344  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXV. 

it,  is  to  find  a  remedy  for  all  our  moral  maladies,  and  an  in- 
centive to  all  our  duties.  Its  mysteries  are  the  sources  of 
the  most  holy  afl'cctions  of  the  heart,  and  the  most  strenuous 
obedience  of  the  life.  All  is  congruous,  pure,  elevated,  con- 
soling, efficacious. 

Such,  then,  being  thfi  excellency  of  Christianity,  the  ob- 
ligation of  obeying  it  rests  on  no  minute  and  doubtful  de- 
tails of  evidence;  almost  any  external  proof  is  enough  for 
deciding  the  question  practically;  the  lowest  probability 
carries  with  it  weight  enough  to  turn  the  scale.  I  enter, 
therefore,  into  no  dispute  about  this  thing  or  that  thing.  I 
sweep  away  all  petty  considerations,  and  I  put  it  on  this 
broad  footing — the  religion  is  so  excellent  that  it  binds  man, 
in  point  of  conscience  as  a  moral  agent,  under  the  govern- 
ment of  Almighty  God,  if  the  outward  and  historical  evi- 
dences be  at  all  satisfactory.  Such  a  religion  wants  no  evi- 
dence but  itself.  And  every  man  that  knows  any  thing  of 
its  real  character,  and  is  not  totally  lost  to  all  sense  of  right 
and  wrong,  feels  this. 

Take  any  part  of  the  wide  subject  of  evidences  that  you 
please — the  authenticity,  the  lives  and  deaths  of  the  apos- 
tles, the  propagation,  the  miracles,  the  prophecies — there 
is  enough  in  any  one  to  carry  the  practical  judgment  along 
with  it.  I  am  not  now  arguing — when  we  treated  the  evi- 
dences in  their  intellectual  and  moral  force,  we  showed 
the  whole  extent  of  them — I  am  now  persuading,  recalling, 
re-impressing. 

Remember,  in  human  life  man  is  governed  by  probabili- 
ties; he  is  compelled  often  on  the  most  momentous  occasions 
to  act  on  a  very  low  probal)ility;  he  not  unfrequently  takes 
steps  with  the  chances  strongly  against  him;  as  when  the 
duration  of  life,  or  the  success  of  a  scheme  of  commercial 
enterprize  is  calculated  ujwn.  Where  an  object  is  in  itself 
desirable,  and  the  plan  commends  itself  to  their  judgment, 
men  seldom  wait  for  evidences  at  all,  but  act  at  once  on 
the  innate  dictate  of  feeling.  Especially  if  a  remedy  be 
brought  for  a  disease,  or  a  deliverance  announced  for  a  cap- 
live,  or  a  beneficial  gift  protfered  to  one   in  distress,  men 


LECT.    XXV.J         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  345 

do  not  wait  for  arguments   and  the  balancing  of  probabili- 
ties, but  tliey  feel,  accept,  appropriate  the  benefit. 

Much  more,  then,  doth  Christianity  bring  with  it  all  the 
moral  obligations  that  can  bind  man.  Here  is  a  remedy  di- 
vinely procured.  Here  is  a  deliverance  wrought  at  immense 
cost;  here  is  a  gift  which  will  enrich  us  for  eternity.  We  want 
not  arguments  and  intellectual  discourse,  or  very  little  of 
them;  we  want  not  evidences  and  credentials,  or  only  in  the 
slightest  degree;  we  want  feeling,  perception  of  our  need,  a 
heart  to  welcome,  to  believe  in,  to  obey  the  joyful  proposals. 

The  mistake,  if  there  should  be  one  in  receiving  it,  cannot 
be  fatal  where  the  whole  religion  is  so  holy,  so  lovely,  so 
beneficial  to  man.  To  receive  such  a  Revelation  cannot 
but  be  safe,  right,  obligatory.  To  reject  it,  indeed,  would 
require  quite  another  course.  Because,  whilst  a  few  eviden- 
ces are  enough  to  warrant  our  obedience  where  all  falls  in 
with  our  previous  duties  and  corresponds  with  the  voice  of 
conscience;  to  reject  such  a  religion  would  demand  posi- 
tive proofs,  stronger  and  more  conclusive  than  those  by 
which  it  is  supported — which  has  never  even  been  pretended. 
To  receive  a  Revelation  so  pure  and  excellent  on  its  own  in- 
trinsic merits,  is  one  thing;  but  to  refuse  its  claims,  if  we 
take  that  course,  will  require  the  complete  establishment 
of  a  case  against  Christianity.  We  must  then  go  into 
the  whole  positive  body  of  historical  evidences,  and  each 
of  these  must  be  outweighed  by  positive  historical  evi- 
dences on  the  other  side.  Common  sense  and  conscience 
dictate  this  distinction.  I  may  receive  a  holy  and  good 
religion  without  going  fully  into  evidences,  if  I  please;  but 
I  cannot  reject  it  without  a  thorough  examination.  But 
such  an  examination  no  one,  with  whom  we  are  concerned, 
will  venture  to  propose. 

It  is  important,  however,  that  this  consideration  should 
press  with  its  full  weight  upon  the  heart.  I  am  speaking 
of  the  moral  obligation  which  lies  on  every  human  being 
to  obey  the  Christian  religion;  and  I  say  it  is  so  infinitely 
excellent  and  holy,  that  we  need  not  trouble  ourselves  with 
reviewing  and  committing  to  memory  the  detail  of  evidences; 
44 


346  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXV. 

the  slightest  recollections  are  enough  to  carry  the  cause. 
The  case  proves  itself. 

I  go  further:  a  single  reflection  settles  the  question.  If 
there  be  any  Revelation  given  from  God  to  man,  the 
Christian  is  that  Revelation;  since  no  other  can  for  an 
instant  be  compared  with  it  in  respect  either  of  outward 
proof  or  internal  excellency;  and  this  Revelation  actually 
accomplishes  the  purposes  for  which  it  professes  to  be  given 
— the  restoration  of  man  to  himself,  to  God,  to  happiness. 
This  consideration  is  enough  to  sway  the  judgment  of  any 
reasonable  and  accountable  creature. 

And  do  you  not  feel  this?  Do  you  not  know  that  you  do 
not  want  proofs,  but  obedience;  that  the  obstacles  to  faith 
are  not  in  Christianity,  but  in  yourselves.?  Yes,  I  am  per- 
suaded you  suspect  at  least  that  such  a  holy  religion  is  indeed 
from  God;  and  must  and  does  claim  and  demand  your  sub- 
mission. I  remind  you,  then,  of  the  obligation  which  these 
principles  bring  with  them.  I  ask  you  in  the  sight  of  that 
Almighty  God,  before  whose  bar  we  shall  soon  stand, 
whether  you  are  not  bound  to  yield  to  a  Revelation  of  his 
grace  so  rich  and  exuberant  as  that  of  Christianity.''  I 
want  to  gain  you  to  salvation.  I  dispute  not — I  persuade. 
I  want  a  cordial,  penetrating  sense  of  guilt  to  awaken 
your  fears.  I  want  a  view  of  a  reconciled  Father  in  Jesus 
Christ,  to  attract  your  love.  I  want  a  perception  of  your 
need  of  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  lead  you  to 
prayer  for  the  blessing.  I  want  the  hopes  and  prospects  of 
immortality  to  animate  your  efforts.  I  set  aside  reasoning. 
I  speak  to  the  conscience.  Be  the  evidences  forcible  or 
slight;  be  they  few  or  many;  be  they  demonstrative  or  only 
probable;  they  are  enough,  on  the  lowest  estimate,  to  carry 
with    them  the    moral    obligation  of   such   a   religion. 

But  how  much  are  these  reflections  strengthened,  when 
we  consider, 

III.  The  real  simplicity,  variety,  independence,  and 

FORCE    OF    THE    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

We  made  the  concessions  of  the  former  head,  in  order 
to  disarm  opposition  and  touch  the  heart.  We  left  the 
conscience    to  its    spontaneous   influence.     We  said  that 


LECT.  XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  347 

such  a  religion,  with  ahnost  any  evidence,  was  excellent 
enough  to  carry  conviction  to  the  human  heart. 

But  the  truth  is,  there  never  was  such  an  assemblage  of 
proofs  of  every  species  capable  of  affecting  and  swaying 
man,  as   in  the  Christian   religion. 

1.  Mark  their  siMpr.iciTy.  Like  the  works  of  God  in 
nature,  there  is  an  inartificial,  simple  beauty  in  them,  cal- 
culated to  strike  every  beholder.  The  apostles  go  forth 
to  preach  the  gospel — they  suspend  the  ordinary  laws  of 
nature — they  appeal  to  their  divine  Master's  name  and 
authority — they  perform  their  miraculous  works  under  all 
circumstances,  and  before  enemies  as  well  as  friends — the 
facts  are  admitted  by  their  bitterest  opponents — the  relig- 
ion spreads  on  the  footing  of  them.  What  a  straight-for- 
ward   appeal   this    to   the   common    sense  of  mankind! 

A  series  of  wonderful  events  is  i)redicted,  during  a  period 
of  four  thousand  years,  with  every  variety  of  circumstance, 
affecting  all  the  nations  of  the  world;  centering  in  the 
person  and  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  God,  fulfilled  and  ful- 
filling before  the  eyes  of  mankind,  going  on  still  in  the 
present  age  as  in  each  past  one.  Can  any  proof  be  more  sim- 
ple and  intelligible?  It  is  an  evidence  accompanying  the 
religion  in  every  age;  as  the  miracles  were  a  proof  attend- 
ing the  first.  I  want  no  chain  of  arguments  to  convince 
me  of  the  true  inference.  It  is  the  omniscient  God  attest- 
ing his  own  Revelation  by  unfolding  something  of  the 
secret  roll  of  his  decrees. 

We  might  retrace  all  our  preceding  Lectures.  The 
majesty  and  simplicity  of  a  divine  hand,  are  apparent  every 
where.  Consider,  I  entreat  you,  how  this  goes  to  augment 
the  obligation  of  receiving  Christianity. 

2.  But  observe  the  varikty  of  these  evidences.  We 
have  been  obliged  to  groupe  tluMn  in  masses  in  our  preced- 
ing Lectures;  but  the  truth  is,  the  evidences  of  Christianity 
are  unnumbered — infinitely  diversified — arising  from  the 
most  remote  quarters — stamped  with  the  same  endless  and 
exuberant  richness  which  characterizes  all  the  works  of  the 
great  God. 


348  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXV. 

Enter  any  of  the  fields  of  natural  science:  what  simplic- 
ity, what  sublime  dignity  and  grandeur!  and  yet,  when  you 
come  to  analyse  the  parts,  what  variety,  what  combinations, 
what  new  elements  and  powers,  what  processes  of  renova- 
tion and  decay,  of  support  and  exhaustion — what  wisdom, 
what  contrivance,  what  results! 

It  is  thus  in  the  Christian   Evidences.     The  variety  of 
them   is  as  surprising   as  their   simplicity.     You  take   any 
part — the  authenticity  of  the  books,  for  instance,  in   which 
the  Revelation   is  contained — you   begin   the    inquiry;  you 
become  by   degrees  a   little   acquainted   with   the    subject; 
you  dig  in  the  mine   as   the  vein  opens   before  you.     New 
and  unlooked-for  prool^s  crowd  on  your  mind;     The  variety 
of  attestation.   Christian,   Jewish,   Heathen,   to  our   sacred 
books;  the  quotations  made  from  them  in  the  first  century; 
the  style  and  manner  of  those  quotations;  the  admission  of 
Jewish  and  Pagan  adversaries;  every  thing  conspires,  with 
infinite  variety  of  form  and  circumstance;  to  the  same  result. 
And  this  variety  appears,  not  only  in  the  number  of  the 
evidences  and  the  exhaustless  elements  found  in  each,  but 
also  in  the  different  class  of  materials  which  constitute 
the  body  of  each  proof.     Miracles,  with   their   instant   and 
irresistible  appeal  to  the  senses,  are   one  kind   of  evidence. 
Prophecy  with  its   slow  and  silently  accumulated  testimony, 
flowing  like  a  stream  down  the  course  of  ages,  is  another. 
The   propagation  effected    in    the   face  of  a   hostile   world 
and  amidst  the  terrors  of  martyrdom,  is  a  third.     The  credi- 
bility derived   from  a  critical  examination  of  the  style  and 
manner  of  our  books,  and  a  comparison  of  their  main  facts 
with  the  contemporary  historians,  is  a  totally  distinct  proof 
from  all   the   preceding;    but    not   more  distinct   than   the 
character  of  our  Lord.     And  all  these  stand  quite  separate 
from    the    argument    from  <he    tendency.     And  this  again 
from     the    inward    witness    which    Christianity    ofl'ers    to 
raise    in  every   breast  that   will   fairly  make    the    experi- 
ment. 

This  variety  meets,  in  a  remarkable  manner,  the  diversity 
of  human  faculties  and  habits  of  thought,  as  well  as  the 
multiform   bodies  of  men  in  diflerent  ages  and  remote  parts 


LECT.    XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 


349 


of  the  world.  There  is  that  which  is  suitable  to  the  cast  of 
mind  of  the  profound  philosopher,  the  accurate  student  of 
mathematical  science,  the  reader  of  history,  the  classical 
scholar,  the  naturalist,  the  statesman,  if  only  they  will  ex- 
amine the  question  with  candor  and  sincerity  of  mind. 
There  is  in  the  same  storehouse  of  evidences,  matters 
adapted  to  the  savage  just  emerging  from  barbarism,  the 
child  with  its  first  opening  powers,  the  inexperience  of 
youthful  and  inquisitive  research,  and  the  infirmity  of  de- 
caying years.  No  turn  of  mind  can  fail,  not  only  of  sub- 
stantial conviction,  but  of  a  conviction  congenial  to  its 
peculiar  associations  of  thought  and  course  of  study. 

The  different  ages  of  mankind  are,  again,  as  much  con- 
sulted in  this  variety,  as  the  classes  of  individuals.  From 
the  first  dawn  of  Revelation  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  during 
the  ages  when  it  was  handed  down  by  oral  tradition,  till 
the  mission  of  Moses  and  the  publication  of  the  Pentateuch, 
there  were  proofs  of  the  divine  will  adapted  for  each  respec- 
tive period.  The  miracles  and  prophecies — the  immediate 
hand  of  the  Lord  extended  and  displayed,  were  sensible 
evidences  to  the  ages  which  elapsed  during  the  legal  econ- 
omy. When  the  gospel  was  promulgated,  its  credentials 
accompanied  it,  as  they  attend  it  still,  with  every  variety  of 
attestation,  suitable  to  more  modern  periods  of  time. 

In  short,  the  diversity  of  the  kinds  of  proof  seem  to  flow 
from  the  various  attributes  and  perfections  of  the  Almighty, 
and  to  pledge  his  glorious  character  in  the  sight  of  man- 
kind.^ The  miracles  seem  to  proclaim  his  power;  the  pro- 
phecies, his  knowledge  and  understanding;  the  propaga- 
tion, his  providential  government;  the  morals,  his  holiness; 
the  doctrines,  his  wisdom  and  love;  the  character  of  Christ, 
his  grace  and  condescension;  the  eflTects  upon  mankind,  his 
benevolence;  the  inward  witness  of  the  Spirit,  his  fidelity 
to  his  promises.  Thus  each  separate  ray  is  heightened  by 
the  combined  glory  of  the  rest,  and  unites  in  casting  one 
concentrated  effulgence  upon  the  Revelation  of  the  divine 
will  to  man.     In  how  great  a  degree  this  consideration  aug- 

(g)  Davison. 


350  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXV. 

ments  the  duty  of  a  cordial  reception  of  the  gospel,  I  need 
not  say. 

3.  But  consider  the  independence  of  these  proofs  one 
of  the  other.  They  are  not  the  continuation  of  one  spe- 
cies of  evidence,  but  the  concurrence  of  independent 
testimonies,  which  might,  each  of  them,  have  failed,  hu- 
manely speaking,  to  unite  in  the  proof  The  miracles 
are  one  branch;  the  prophecies  are  another  division,  not 
of  ihe  same  sort,  not  always  pronounced  by  the  same 
lips,  nor  published  in  the  same  age,  and  not  following  by 
necessary  consequence  the  one  from  the  other.  The  propa- 
gation is  a  third  portion  still  independent  of  the  two  pre- 
ceding ones:  the  good  effects  another — the  internal  eviden- 
ces constitute  a  new  series — the  inward  experience  of  the 
Christian  promises  a  still  different.  These  are  independent 
credentials  deposed  by  distinct  agents,  many  of  them  arising 
from -circumstances  quite  unexpected;  others  open  to  our 
actual  investigation  at  the  present  hour;  some  created  in 
our  own  breasts,  and  springing  from  our  personal  obedience 
to  the  gospel.  ,.:<■  \\   ' 

This  independent  character  makes  it  yet  more  impossible 
that  the  Christian  Revelation  should  not  be  from  God. 
Suppose,  for  a  moment,  that  one  class  of  the  Christian  tes- 
timonies had  been  invented  by  wicked  and  designing  men; 
yet  these  same  individuals  could  never  have  controlled  the 
events  of  distant  ages,  or  the  wills  of  persons  in  remote 
parts  of  the  world.  These  men  could  never  have  infused 
the  beneficial  tendency  into  the  religion.  These  men  could 
least  of  all  have  commanded  that  almighty  power  which 
interposed  for  the  first  establishment  of  the  gospel.  Noth- 
ing is  more  difficult  than  to  support  a  forgery  of  ever  so 
limited  an  extent.  Truth  will  appear.  But  to  suppose  a 
forgery  which  must  have  ramified  over  the  whole  earth,  have 
secured  independent  sources  of  proof,  have  called  in  a 
divine  power,  and  yet  never  have  acted  so  as  to  betray 
itself,  is  infinitely  too  absurd  an  idea  to  be  entertained  for 
an  instant. 

This    independence  of  the    proofs   goes   yet   further;  it 
regards  the  moral,  as  well  as  the  physical  impossibility  of 


LECT.    XXV.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  351 

any  deception  being  practised.  Suppose  forgery  to  con- 
taminate one  division  of  evidences:  for  exam|)le,  the  testi- 
mony of  the  apostles  to  the  Resurrection  of  their  master 
and  Lord,  and  the  sincerity  of  their  belief  in  that  command- 
ing fact.  Then  all  their  design  was  hypocritical,  dishonest, 
of  the  basest  description  of  imposture.  Then  tlie  men  were 
at  bottom  the  most  depraved  and  infamous  of  their  race. 
And  yet  their  doctrine  is  so  pure  and  sublime;  the  morals 
they  teach  so  holy  and  extensive;  the  consistency  of  their 
testimony  even  to  death  so  entire;  their  unblemished  and 
disinterested  lives  so  free  from  reproach;  the  persecution, 
contumely,  loss  of  liberty  and  ease,  and  deaths  by  actual 
martyrdom  which  they  endured,  so  unparalleled;  that 
nothing  but  the  truth  of  tlieir  story,  and  the  sincerity  of 
their  belief,  and  the  sustaining  power  and  aid  of  the 
Almighty,  can  account  for  their  conduct.  The  independent 
evidences  thus  make  a  delusion  impossible. 

Not  only  so.  The  same  talents  and  cast  of  mind  and 
reach  of  thought  which  could  have  invented  one  kind  of 
testimony,  would  have  disqualified  them  from  succeeding  in 
the  others.  They  could  invent  miraculous  stories,  for 
instance;  but  could  the  same  minds,  or  any  minds  but  the 
most  pure,  have  invented  the  character  of  Christ,  or  the 
morals,  or  the  holy  tendency.^  This  is  saying  little. 
Could  any  minds,  however  pure,  have  discovered,  or 
have  described,  or  have  imposed,  such  new  and  unheard-of 
purity  as  appears  in  the  Christian  religion?  No;  whatever 
way  you  turn  yourself,  the  independence  of  the  Christian 
Evidences  affords  mutual  checks  the  one  on  the  other,  and 
makes  it  impossible  that  the  wIkjIc  should  be  a  forgery. 

Open,  then,  your  mind  to  the  additional  obligation  arising 
from  this  remarkable  fact.  See  the  independence,  as  well 
as  the  variety,  of  the  Christian  evidence  bearing  on  your 
conscience  and  persuading  you  to  obedience. 

4.  I  say  nothing  on  the  force  which  these  united  con- 
siderations give  to  the  whole  proof.  Force  is  a  word  far 
too  limited;  it  is  an  overwhelming  tide  of  conviction;  it  is 
a  brilliant  and  refulgent  burst  of  glory  surrounding  the 
Christian  doctrine.     No  one  of  these  various  kinds  of  proof 


352  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXV. 

has  ever  been  fairly  disproved.  They  have  stood,  each  of 
them,  for  eighteen  hun(lre<l  years,  open  to  tlie  scrutiny  of 
the  world.  The  separate  force  of  each  has  gone  on  aug- 
menting, by  the  events  of  history  and  the  progress  of  the 
human  mind  in  sound  reasoning.  The  combined  force 
comprehends  every  species  of  probable  argument,  sustained 
by  positive  matters  of  fact,  which  can  influence  man;  and 
is  receiving  fresh  confirmations  by  the  fulfilment  of  prophe- 
cies, the  attestations  of  history,  the  discovery  of  manu- 
scripts, coins  and  medals  of  ancient  times,  in  every  age. 

This  force  is  best  estimated  by  contrasting  it  with  the 
decreasing  evidences  of  every  other  religion  or  pretended 
religion.  The  proofs,  such  as  they  were,  of  the  Heathen 
mythologies  have  long  waned  and  gone  out.  The  proofs, 
of  mahometanism  have  been  for  ages  abandoned.  The  evi- 
dences of  the  different  idolatrous  religions  of  Africa  or 
India,  of  America  or  the  South  Sea  islands,  cannot  for  an 
instant  bear  the  light.  The  pretended  sufficiency  claimed 
by  natural  religion  diminishes  in  force,  every  year,  by  the 
loud  condemnation  of  facts  and  experience.  But  the  evi- 
dences of  Christianity  remain  in  undecayed  vigor,  and  aug- 
mented brightness. 

In  fact,  the  Christian  religion  is  the  only  religion  in  the 
world  which  rested  originally  on  decided  and  distinct  and 
reasonable  claims  to  the  obedience  of  men,  and  which  has 
sustained  those  claims  through  a  series  of  ages,  and  exhib- 
its now  a  bold  and  intelligible  front  to  the  observation  of 
mankind.  There  never  was  a  religion  but  the  Christian 
(under  which  I  include  the  preparatory  Revelation)  that 
laid  any  one  just  pretension  to  the  faith  of  its  followers. 

And  at  this  moment  Christianity  is  the  only  religion  in 
the  world  that  advances  any  fair  claim  on  our  belief.  The 
unsubstantial  grounds  of  other  religions  sink  and  disappear 
before  the  least  inquiry;  those  of  the  Christian  increase 
and  strengthen  the  more  they  are  examined. 

So  that  this  question  is  between  Christianity  and  no  relig- 
ion at  all.  If  Christianity  be  not  defensible,  no  one  with 
whom  we  have  to  do,  will  support  the  pretensions  of  any 
other.'' 

(h)  Paley. 


LECT.  XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  353 

With  this  accumulated  evidence,  which  it  is  impossible 
adequately  to  appreciate — which,  in  its  simplicity,  its  vari- 
ety, its  independence,  and  its  force,  batfles,  like  all  the  other 
works  of  God,  the  powers  of  man  fully  to  develop — Chris- 
tianity meets  the  moral  and  accountable  being  to  whom  it 
is  addressed.  Christianity,  so  excellent  in  itself,  as  scarcely 
to  require  any  evidence,  possesses  in  fact  every  species;  and 
then  comes  to  man,  already  under  the  antecedent  obliga- 
tions and  natural  bonds  to  his  Maker  and  Benefactor;  and 
says  to  him,  'Give  me  your  attention;  yield  up  to  me  your 
passions;  submit  to  me  your  will;  open  to  me  your  intellec- 
tual and  moral  powers.  I  will  enlighten,  and  restore,  and 
console,  and  bless  you;  I  will  teach  you  the  source  of  your 
present  errors  and  ignorance;  I  will  lay  open  to  you  the 
whole  of  your  malady;  I  will  guide  you  to  the  fountain  of 
salvation.  Bow  only  your  proud,  rebellious  intellect;  pre- 
tend not  to  divine  all  the  reasons  of  my  conduct;  submit  to 
that  state  of  probation,  both  as  to  knowledge  and  duty, 
which  I  assign  you.  Lo,  I  offer  all  needful  succour.  The 
aids  of  grace,  the  strength  and  illumination  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  are  before  you.  Yield,  then,  the  contest.  You  can- 
not overcome,  if  you  persevere  in  resistance;  you  are 
bound  by  every  moral  tie  that  can  surround  man;  you 
are  in  my  power;  you  cannot  elude  nor  defy  with  safety  my 
vengeance.' 

Yes,  my  brethren,  I  hope  I  have,  in  some  measure,  gained 
my  cause.  Surely  my  pleading  with  you,  for  your  own 
happiness,  will  not  be  wholly  in  vain. 

I  have  touched  on  the  grounds  of  the  obligations  under 
which  you  lie.     Bear  with  me  whilst  I  remind  you, 

IV.  Of  the  PAKTICULAR  ADVANTAGES  WHICH  EACH  OF 
YOU  HAS  RESPECTIVELY  ENJOYED,  AND  WHICH  UNSPEAKABLY 
AUGMENT    THE    DUTY    OF      BEMEVING    IN    CHRISTIANITY.       For, 

besides  those  evidences  which  lie  open  to  the  universal 
attention  of  mankind,  God  has  been  surrounding  you  with 
circumstances  of  advantage  for  weighing  these  proofs,  and 
for  complying  with  the  obligations  arising  from  them.  The 
country  in  which  you  were  born,  the  events  of  life  which  a 
good  providence  has  ordered,  the  strivings  of  the  Holy 
45 


354  LECTURES  ON  THE         [leCT.  XXV. 

Spirit  with  your  conscience,  the  advice,  and  examples,  and 
prayers  of  ministers  and  friends,  have  bound  your  duty  upon 
you  with  additional  ties. 

1.    For     VOV    WERE     NOT    BOUN      IN     A      HEATHEN    LAND,    far 

from  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  where  no  sabbath-rest  invited 
you  to  religion;  no  profession  of  the  gospel  in  your  coun- 
try called  your  notice  to  its  claims;  but  where  all  was  bur- 
ied in  nature's  night.  You  might  have  had  your  lot  cast  in 
such  nations,  with  the  millions  of  the  heathen,  and  have 
had  no  means  of  information  as  to  Christianity,  but  such  as 
some  benevolent  missionary  might  bring  you.  But  you  were 
born  in  a  Christian  country.  Religion  received  you  in  her 
arms;  she  took  you,  and  admitted  you  into  the  Christian 
church;  she  washed  you  in  the  waters  of  baptism;  she  com- 
mitted you  to  Christian  parents  and  friends;  she  put  the  sa- 
cred Volume  into  your  hands;  she  has  followed  you  with  her 
prayers.     < 

Nor  was  it  in  a  dark  period  of  the  Christian  dispensation 
that  you  were  born,  nor  in  a  country  where  the  grossest  cor- 
ruptions of  it  prevailed.  No;  you  were  born  in  a  pure  and 
enlightened  day;  in  a  protestant  land;  under  a  government 
and  laws  which  respected  and  upheld  the  Christian  faith,  at 
a  time  when  the  efforts  of  infidelity  had  been  exposed  by 
the  horrors  of  the  continental  philosophy  and  the  crimes 
of  infidels  and  scoffers;  when  the  facts  as  to  the  darkness 
and  depravity  of  heathen  nations  had  been  demonstrated  in 
the  clearest  manner;  and  the  beneficial  tendency  of  Chris- 
tianity had  been  proved  in  the  missions  abroad,  and  the 
revived  attention  to  Religion  at  home.  But  these  are  not 
all  your  particular  advantages. 

2.    ThB    EVENTS    OF    LIFE    HAVE    BEEN  SO  OKDERED    BY    THE 

GRACIOUS  PROVIDENCE  OF  GoD,  as,  ou  various  occasions, 
to  aid  the  tendency  of  these  external  circumstances  of 
birth. 

Yes,  there  is  not  one  before  me,  but  has  been  led,  at  one 
time  or  other,  by  the  course  of  events,  to  additional  means 
of  salvation.  Changes  in  your  pursuits  have  brought  you 
within  the  reach  of  the  good  and  pious.  Journeys  and  re- 
tirements have  afforded  you  peculiar  seasons  of  recollection. 


LECT.    XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF     CHRISTIANITY.  355 

The  consequences  of  folly  and  sin  have  been  demonstrated 
to  you  in  your  own  case,  or  in  that  of  others.  Disappoint- 
ments in  your  most  ardent  expectations  have  made  you  feel 
the  uncertainty  of  this  world's  hnppiness,  and  the  necessity 
of  seeking  after  that  which  Christianity  presents.  Unex- 
pected blessings  and  deliverances  have  been  vouchsafed 
you  in  seasons  of  peculiar  emergency;  your  life  has  been 
spared;  disease  has  been  stopped  when  at  its  height;  death 
has  been  arrested  as  he  was  entering  your  abode.  Retrace 
the  history  of  your  life,  and  the  mercies  of  a  providential 
care  will  be  most  apparent.  Nor  have  the  least  irnporiant 
moments  been  those  of  peculiar  affliction,  deep  domestic  ca- 
lamities and  personal  sorrows.  In  these  events  God  has 
spoken  to  you  in  the  interior  of  the  heart;  religion  has  ap- 
peared in  its  just  excellence;  and  interposing  passions  and 
pursuits  have  suspended  their  fascinations.  What  use  have 
you  made  of  these  occurrences?  Have  you  looked  up  to  the 
hand  which  guided  you  unseen?  Have  you  considered  the 
obligations  of  obedience  to  his  Revelation,  as  augmented  by 
these  appointments  of  the  Almighty? 

4.  And  what  have  you  done  in  consequence  of  those 
MOTIONS  OF  THE  BLESSED  Spirit,  which  havo  Hot  failed  to 
suggest  to  you  the  necessity  of  submission  to  your  God? 
You  know  not,  possibly,  what  is  meant  by  the  influences 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  I  will  tell  you,  that  the  Christianity 
which  you  are  so  little  acquainted  with,  consists  much,  as 
to  its  practical  blessings  upon  the  heart,  in  the  influences 
of  divine  grace;  in  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  We  have 
largely  referred  to  this  topic  in  former  Lectures.  I  recur 
to  it  now,  to  show  you  the  obligations  you  are  under  to  the 
great  God  and  Father  of  all.  Yes,  those  disturbances  of 
mind,  that  uneasiness  of  conscience,  those  regrets  after  the 
commission  of  sin,  those  convictions  of  the  importance  of 
religion,  that  fear  of  death,  those  intervals  of  religious  im- 
pression, those  thoughts  of  God  and  duty  which  have  visited 
your  souls,  have  not  been  unattended  with  the  additional 
force  and  pungency  which  the  influences  of  grace  bestow. 
It  is  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  which  has  been  remonstrating, 
calling,  inviting  you,  by  these  operations  of  your  intellectual 


366  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXV. 

and  moral  powers.  And  for  all  this  aid  you  will  have  to 
give  an  account.  These  movements  of  grace  have  conspired 
with  the  events  of  your  life,  and  have  been  most  persuasive 
when  your  outward  circumstances  called  you  most  loudly 
to  consideration.  There  have  been  times,  perhaps,  when 
you  were,  like  the  king  Agrippa,  almost  persuaded  to  be  a 
Christian.'  There  have  been  times,  when,  like  the  wretched 
Herod,  you  have  observed  the  minister  of  religion,  and  done 
maiiy  things  and  heard  him  gladly.^  All  these  inward  motions 
of  the  Spirit  bring  a  deep  responsibility  with  them;  they  can- 
not be  neglected  nor  quenched  with  impunity.  But  this  is 
not  all. 

4.  The  advice,  example,  and  prayers  of  ministers  and 
FRIENDS  have,  in  most  of  those  before  me,  swelled  the  cat- 
alogue of  advantages,  for  which  an  account  must  be  render- 
ed to  God.  You  have  had  the  best  counsel  offered  you  in 
the  most  affectionate  manner;  you  have  had  that  advice  sus- 
tained by  the  holy  example,  and  consistent  lives,  and  happy 
deaths  of  those  who  gave  it;  you  have  seen,  in  your  circle, 
perhaps  in  your  immediate  family,  examples  of  rare  virtue, 
instances  of  conversion,  the  calm  tenor  of  a  Christian  life 
and  conduct;  you  have  had  religion  embodied  before  your 
eyes;  you  have  witnessed  the  last  hours  of  departing  piety. 
A  mother's  prayers,  which  followed  you  through  life,  have 
been  poured  out  for  you  on  the  bed  of  death.  A 
father's  wise  counsel  has  been  solemnly  repeated  amidst  the 
expiring  accents  of  struggling  nature;  and  the  anxiety  and 
entreaties  of  health  have  been  confirmed  by  the  faint  prayers 
of  his  last  sickness.'  The  minister  of  religion  has  followed 
you  with  his  affectionate  and  persuasive  entreaties.  He  has 
visited  your  sick  chamber.  He  has  witnessed  the  vows  of 
amendment  and  conversion,  which  you  forgot,  alas!  almost 
as  soon  as  the  occasion  passed.  He  has  addressed  to  you 
his  gentle  remonstrances.  He  waits  for  your  reformation. 
His  prayers,  his  labors,  his  public  and  private  instructions, 
are  directed  to  one  object,  your  salvation. 

And  will  you   not   yield?     Shall  not  all  these  tender  con- 
siderations persuade  you  to  your  duty,  which  you  ought  to 

(i)  Acts  xxvi.  28.  ( j)  Mark  vi.  20. 


LECT.    XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 


357 


discharge  if  not  one  of  them  existed:'  Remember,  if  you 
forget  them,  your  Maker  does  not;  if  you  fail  to  regard 
them,  there  is  a  book  in  which  every  one  is  noted;  if  you 
retrace  not  the  series  of  particular  advantages,  God  will  re- 
publish them  before  an  assembled  world.  Yes,  moral  obli- 
gations cannot  be  burst  asunder  with  impunity.  The  Al- 
mighty has  a  book  of  reckoning,  to  which  the  volume  of 
your  {)ast  history  will  respond,  and  which  the  records  of  con- 
science will  confirm. 

It  is  not  yet  too  late.  All  your  advantages  may  yet  be 
turned  to  the  end  for  which  they  were  granted.  Salvation 
is  yet  proposed.  The  gospel  calls  you  to  obedience.  Be- 
lieve the  divine  Revelation.  Hesitate  no  longer.  Renounce 
your  unbelief  and  disobedience  of  heart,  and  submit  to  the 
yoke  of  faith. 

But,  weighty  as  these  considerations  are  which  spring 
from  your  original  obligations  to  God,  the  nature  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  force  of  its  evidences,  and  the  advantages  you 
have  especially  enjoyed,  they  may  and  will  fail  of  their  ef- 
fect, unless  we  take  into  account,  what  I  proposed  to  notice 
in  the  last  place. 

V.     The  momentous  discoveries  which  Christianity 

MAKES,    AND    THE    DEEP    INTERESTS.  WHICH  ARE    C0NSEQ,UENT- 
LY    DEPENDENT    ON    THK    RF.CEPTION    OF    IT. 

This  carries  the  obligations  to  a  height  which  no  words 
can  express  nor  imagination  conceive  aright.  Dependent 
on  the  determination  of  this  question,  is  every  other  that 
deserves  the  name.  On  the  one  point,  whether  we  obey  or 
reject  Christianity,  our  happiness  here  and  hereafter,  our 
immortal  destiny,  heaven  and  hell;  death,  judgment,  and 
eternity;  an  interminable  state  of  the  most  exalted  bliss,  or 
the  most  unutterable  woe;  the  accomplishment  of  all  the 
promised  blessings,  or  the  infliction  of  all  the  threatened 
penalties  of  Christianity  depend. 

1.  Recollect,  I  entreat  you,  THE  momentous  discoveries 
WHICH  Chuistiamty  MAKES,  the  ucw  position  in  which  it 
places  you,  the  new  doctrines  it  reveals,  the  new  duties  it 
enjoins,  the  new  relations  it  creates,  the  new  and  unuttera- 
ble truths  it  proclaims.     It  opens  eternity.     It  reveals  the 


358  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXV. 

character  and  government  of  the  invisible  Creator.  It 
brings  life  and  immortality  to  light.  It  discloses  all  the 
sources  of  your  misery.  It  displays  the  corruption  and  guilt 
of  your  nature.  It  reveals  that  standard  of  sin  and  holiness 
by  which  God  judges  you  now,  and  will  judge  you  at  the 
last  day.  It  calls  you  to  repentance  and  confession,  to 
faith  and  humility,  to  love  to  God  and  man,  to  a  spiritual 
and  obedient  life.  It  reveals  the  divine  Agent  by  which  all 
the  claims  of  the  gospel  may  be  complied  with,  and  all  its 
duties  fulfilled — the  Holy  Spirit  of  grace.  What  scenes 
are  thus  thrown  open  in  the  endless  vista  before  you!  What 
duties  arise;  what  dangers  impend!  Will  you  not,  then, 
awake  at  the  call  and  invitation  of  mercy.''  Will  you  remain 
indifferent  and  stupid  and  perverse,  when  God  has  conde- 
scended to  make  known  to  you  your  fall,  your  ruin,  your 
remedy,  your  way,  your  end.^ 

Call  to  mind,  particularly,  the  immense  love  of  God  in 
THE  redemption  OF  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  the  peculiar 
discovery  of  Revelation.  This  increases  the  obligation  of 
obedience  to  the  gospel.  What!  shall  God  have  expended 
all  his  love,  displayed  all  his  wisdom,  illustrated  all  his  most 
glorious  attributes,  in  the  salvation  of  man;  and  shall  man, 
in  pride  and  self-conceit,  turn  away  his  attention.''  Shall 
he  drivel  about  trifles,  and  hide  and  blunt  his  sense  of  ac- 
countableness  amidst  speculations  and  vain  reasonings.'' 
Shall  the  eternal  Judge  have  put  oft'  all  his  terrors,  and 
clothed  himself  in  mercy;  shall  he  have  sent  his  only-be- 
gotten Son  into  this  miserable  world  as  a  sacrifice  for  sin; 
shall  he  have  manifested  himself  as  essential  love,  as 
delighting  in  the  happiness  of  his  creatures,  as  diff'using 
and  communicating  blessings  to  all  the  beings  he  has 
formed,  in  every  way  consistent  with  his  infinite  purity  and 
holiness  as  a  moral  Governor;  and  shall  man  wrap  himself 
up  in  his  passions  and  his  self-will,  and  spurn  all  this  exu- 
berant loving-kindness,  and  shelter  his  enmity  under  the 
guise  of  metaphysical  difficulties.''  What!  shall  all  possible 
HELPS  to  ruined  man  have  been  devised,  not  merely  in  the 
mighty  salvation  of  Christ,  but  in  the  freeness  of  the  gospel 
promises,  in  the  institution  of  means  of  grace,  in  the  seals 


LECT.    XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  359 

and  pledges  of  the  sacraments,  in  the  voice  and  persuasion 
of  ministers,  in  the  promises  and  encouragements  to  prayer; 
and  shall  man  sullenly  refuse  to  use  these  helps,  or  to  mount 
by  them  towards  the  road  of  heaven?  Surely,  surely  you 
will  not  violate  the  obligations  which  spring  from  the  im- 
mense discoveries  of  the  love  of  GodI  Surely  you  will  not 
turn  into  deeper  condemnation  all  those  means  of  life  which 
are  let  down,  as  it  were,  from  heaven  to  earth,  in  order 
to  draw  you  up  from  earth   to  heaven! 

2.     And  can  you  forget  the  deep  interests  which   are 

AT    stake    in    consequence    OF  THESE  DISCOVERIES.^ the  last 

dread  day,  heaven,  hell,  eternity! 

Can  you  forget  that  last  dkead  day,  when  you  must  stand 
and  be  judged  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.''  Can  you 
forget  that  solemn  assize,  that  tribunal  where  omniscience 
will  detail  the  facts;  where  infinite  truth  will  pronounce  the 
sentence,  where  Omnipotence  itself  will  carry  it  into  execu- 
tion. That  day  which  even  natural  religion  acknowledges, 
which  the  conscience  of  man  involuntarily  anticipates,  and 
on  the  transactions  of  which  the  gospel  has  shed  a  blaze  of 
light.  The  assembled  world  will  then  be  arraigned;  the 
secrets  of  every  heart  will  be  made  manifest;  the  moral  ac- 
countableness  of  man  will  be  displayed;  the  force  of  the  evi- 
dences of  revelation  will  be  recognized;  the  hidden  motives 
which  rendered  these  evidences  unproductive  of  practical 
persuasion  will  be  brought  forth;  the  actual  vice,  and  per- 
verseness,  and  resistance  to  conscience,  and  wilful  obstinacy, 
and  rebellion  of  heart,  and  neglect  of  warnings,  and  quench- 
ing of  the  motions  of  the  Spirit,  and  callousness  of  heart 
and  perception,  will  then  be  made  fully  manifest;  contrary 
arguments  and  reasonings  of  the  corrupt  intellect  of  man  will 
be  overborne  by  the  instant  irradiations  of  truth;  and  out  of 
his  own  mouth,  and  by  his  own  confession,  will  each  sinner 
be  judged.  Avert  then  this  awful  condemnation!  Oh,  be 
wise  to-day!  Awaken  now  to  those  obligations  which  will 
be  re-called  and  re-inforced  on  your  distracted  conscience  at 
the  last  great  tribunal. 

And    is   THE  heavenly  prize  which  Christianity  pre- 
sents TO  your  view  unworthy  of  your  pursuit?    A  prize 


360  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXV. 

SO  inestimable,  that  it  is  difficult  even  to  raise  our  minds  to 
any  conception  of  it.  We  contrast  it  with  our  present  cir- 
cumstances of  darkness,  folly,  guilt,  self-condemnation, 
dread  of  the  Almighty  Avenger,  enmity,  alienation  of  mind, 
misery;  and  we  endeavor  to  think  of  what  that  happiness 
must  be,  where  the  negatives  of  these  actual  sorrows  will 
lead  on  to  all  the  positive  blessings  of  which  our  finite  na- 
ture  is  susceptible.  Not  only  shall  there  be  no  pain,  no 
night,  no  defect,  no  tears,  no  apprehensions,  no  curse  there; 
but  there  shall  be  the  fulness  of  joy,  and  pleasures  for  evermore. 
These  pleasures  shall  be  spiritual  and  exalted.  The  hap- 
piness of  mind  is  infinitely  superior  to  any  bodily  satisfac- 
tion, however  pure  or  permanent.  The  prize  which  Chris- 
tianity proposes  is  the  highest  measure  of  the  purest  joys 
of  which  man  is  susceptible — the  joy  of  intellect  when 
fully  illuminated  with  truth;  the  joy  of  conscience  when 
thoroughly  penetrated  with  light  and  peace;  the  joy  of  the 
heart  and  atiections  when  com])letely  satiated  with  their 
appropriate  objects;  the  joy  of  the  whole  nature  of  man 
when  placed  in  entire  repose  and  satisfaction,  after  a  wea- 
ried life  of  conflict  and  temptation. 

And  not  only  so:  it  is  a  liappinoss  springing  from  the  im- 
mediate presence  and  approbation  of  the  great  God,  the 
fountain  of  all  felicity,  the  source  of  peace,  the  sprints  of 
blessedness  to  all  intelligent  creation;  whose  frown  consti- 
tutes the  essence  of  misery,  whose  favor  is  essential  life  and 
joy.  Nor  this  only:  but  it  is  the  seeking  of  Christ,  the  pres- 
ence of  Jesus  our  Redeemer,  the  being  with  him  where  he 
is,  to  behold  the  glory  which  he  had  with  the  Father  before 
the  ivorld  was,^ — the  contemplating  Deity  in  the  person  of 
the  only  begotten  Son,  the  casting  our  crowns  of  brightness 
at  his  feet,  and  praising  his  love  as  the  Lamb  that  was  slain 
and  hath  redeemed  us  to  God  by  his  blood} 

The  communion  of  the  blessed  orders  of  angels  will  also 
be  a  part  of  that  heavenly  state.  Yes,  we  shall  join  the 
innumerable  company  of  angels;"'  we  shall  sec  Gabriel  and  all 
Iiis  compeers  in  the  angelic   host,  from  the   loftiest  seraph 

(k)  Jol).)  xvii.  2k  (1)  Rev.  V.  9,  12  (in)  Heb.  xii.  22. 


LECT.    XXV.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  361 

that  is  before  the  throne  to  the  lowest  order  of  those  pure 
and  spotless  intelligences.  We  shall  be  in  communion 
with  all  that  is  holy  and  elevated  and  just  in  the  creation 
of  God. 

Nor  will  the  fellowship  with  the  whole  church  of  the 
redeemed  be  wanting,  that  intercommunity  of  love,  that 
re-union  of  dissevered  affections,  that  junction  and  return  of 
separated  brethren  and  friends!  There  all  will  know  and  be 
known;  all  unite  and  be  united;  all  see  eye  to  eye,  and  be 
in  eternal  harmony,  and  increasing  and  augmenting  capaci- 
ties of  loving  and  glorifying  their  gracious  God  and  Father. 

And  is  not  such  a  prize  worth  striving  for?  Is  not  heaven 
worth  attaining?  Are  not  some  of  those  exertions  which 
are  wasted  on  temporary,  mean,  degrading,  injurious  pur- 
suits, worth  bestowing  on  this  exalted  object.^  Shall  men 
be  ever  disputing  about  mole-hills  of  the  earth,  gathering 
and  collecting  stones  and  pebbles,  sinking  the  immortal 
spirit  in  the  downward  course  of  earthly  and  petty  pursuits; 
and  will  they  never  cast  a  look  upward  towards  that  heav- 
enly crown,  which  is  held  in  the  Saviour's  hand  as  the  re- 
ward of  faith  in  his  name.'' 

And  how  shall  tongue  express  the  awful  contrast  to 
ALL  THIS  BLISS — the  alternative,  the  correspondent  doom 
which  awaits  those  who  receive  not  the  Christian  faith  and 
gain  not  the  heavenly  prize?  This  augments  the  moral  ob- 
ligations of  obedience  to  Christianity.  There  is — there  is 
— there  is  a  gulf  of  misery,  a  final  separation  from  God,  a 
worm  that  never  dieih  and  a  fire  that  never  shall  be.  quenched^ 
a  state  of  outer  darkness  where  shall  be  weeping  and  wailing 
and  gnashing  of  teeth — a  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone  ivhich  is  the 
second  death.'^  Those  to  whom  the  words  of  grace  shall  not 
be  addressed,  will  hear  other  words.  "Thkse  shall  go 
AWAY  INTO  everlasting  PUNISHMENT,"  is  the  rcsult  which 
will  proceed  from  the  same  judgment  as  the  opposite  event, 

<'AND    THE    RIGHTEOUS    INTO    LIKE    ETERNAL.""       Nothing  but 

the  imperious  dictate  of  true  charity  would  lead  the  minister 
of  religion  to  touch  on  this  topic.     But  he   has  no  choice. 

(n)  Mark  ix.  13.    Rev.  xx.  14.  (o)  MalL  xxv  46. 

46 


362  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXV. 

"Melius  est  cum  vcritate  diligcre,  quam  cum  lenitate  deci- 
I)ere,"  savs  Au'^ustinc.  Benevolence  compels  us  to  speak 
the  truth;  benevolence  compels  us  to  try  to  snatch  from  de- 
struction our  deceived  fellovv-mcn.  Benevolence  com])els 
us  to  warn  Dives  of  that  state  of  torment  into  which  unbe- 
lief and  scorn  will  [dunge  him;  in  order  that,  repenting  and 
believing  the  gospel,  he  may  be  carried  at  his  death  by  an- 
gels into  Abraham's  bosom.'' 

This  makes  the  Christian  faith  so  obligatory  upon  man,  that 
the  interests  at  stake  are  of  such  incalculable  importance; 
the  unbeliever  not  only  loses  heaven,  but  is  plunged  into 
hell;  he  not  only  is  deprived  of  the  benefit  wiiich  redemp- 
tion proffered,  but  remains  under  the  condemnation  which 
his  sins  deserve. 

And  what  eteunitv  means,  I  know  not — how  much  is 
comprehended  in  that  one  word,  I  know  not — whither  it 
stretches,  what  it  involves,  what  relation  it  bears  to  time, 
what  its  continually  augmenting  benefits  of  joy  or  depths  of 
misery,  I  know  not — imagination  cannot  conceive,  words 
cannot  express.  Remember — whethkr  Chkistiamty  be 
TRUE  OR  not,  eternity  PvExMAINS.  The  immortality 
of  the  soul,  the  future  state,  the  judgment-day  and  its  end- 
less conseciuences,  are  truths  which  natural  religion  pro- 
fesses to  admit:  Christianity  has  only  thrown  a  blaze  of  light 
on  the  obscure  traces  of  these  great  doctrines.  The  least 
probability  of  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity  is  sufficient, 
then,  to  sway  an  accountable  being  in  seizing  the  hopes  of 
mercy  and  availing  himself  of  the  means  of  salvation. — 
What  then  should  the  accumulated  evidences  of  Revela- 
tion do.^  Eternity  eludes  our  comprehension,  however  we 
stretch  our  minds  in  the  pursuit.  The  longest  periods  of 
time  will  know  an  end.  From  the  fall  of  Adam  to  the  pres- 
ent hour,  six  thousand  years  have  scarcely  elapsed — the 
term  to  our  narrow  minds  seems  long — but  what  are  six 
thousand  years  to  eternity!  When  ten  thousand  times  ten 
thousand  years  have  passed,  it  will  be  only  begun.  If  every 
sand  upon  the  sea  shore  were  to  be  removed  by  one  single 

(p)  Luke  xvi. 


LECT.    XXV.]         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  3G3 

grain  at  a  time,  and  with  an  interval  of  a  thousand  ages  be- 
tween each,  at  some  period  or  other  that  space  would  be 
passed — but  eternity  would  still  stretch  infinitely  beyond! 

And  against  this  eternity  what  protection  have  you? 
What  assurance  that  it  is  not  nighr  What  have  you  but  the 
breath  in  your  nostrils  as  an  interposing  security?  For  what 
is  your  life,  is  it  not  a  vapor  ichich  appearcth  fur  a  little  time 
and  then  vanisheth  away^^  What  a  slender  interference! 
What  a  momentary  suspension!  Pleasure,  vanity,  pride, 
science,  ambition,  riches,  honor,  health,  all  hanging  upon  a 
thread!  And  what  then  must  be  the  obligation  of  that  re- 
ligion, which  will  render  this  moment  of  life  the  means  of 
securing  an  eternity  of  bliss! 

Yes;  I.  trust  I  have  so  far  succeeded  as  to  bring  your  con- 
science to  a  stand.  I  have  so  far  gained  the  day  as  to 
awaken  some  apprehensions.  You  resolve  to  obey  the  Chris- 
tian religion;  you  determine  not  to  violate  obligations 
which  correspond  with  the  antecedent  relations  in  which 
wc  stand  to  God;  which  rest  on  the  obvious  excellency 
of  the  Pcovelation  of  Christ;  which  are  increased  by  the 
variety  and  force  of  its  evidences;  which  are  yet  further 
augmented  by  the  particular  advantages  of  each  individual; 
and  are  raised  to  their  utmost  height  by  the  momentous  dis- 
coveries and  immense  interests  of  eternity. 

Let,  tiien,  your  submission  to  Christianity  be  immediate 
and  cordial. 

I  say  IMMEDIATE,  bccausc  delays  are  in  nothing  so  danger- 
ous as  in  religion — where  the  impression  of  good  is  so  soon 
effaced,  and  a  relapse  into  inditierence  is  so  instantaneous. 
To-day,  if  ye  will  hear  his  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts  lie 
that  defers  his  conversion,  will  never  be  converted  at  all. 
Men  often  mistake  their  imagination  for  their  heart,  and  be- 
lieve they  are  c<inverted  from  the  time  they  think  about 
conversion.*  Lose,  therefore,  no  time  in  deciding  the 
case.  Remember  the  accumulated  responsibility  wjiich 
has  been  gathering,  like  a  cloud,  around  you  from  the 
first  dawn  of  reason  to  the  present  hour.  Every  day  has 
increased  the  account.     JNJot  a  moment  further  is  to  be  lost. 

{<l)  James  iv.  14.  (r)  Hebrews  iv.  7.  (s)  Tascal. 


3G4  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXV. 

Perhaps  even  now  the  Holy  Spirit  is  striving  for  the  last 
time  with  your  heart.  ^'3iiJ  thou,  Cnpcrnaum,  were  the  sol- 
emn words  of  Jes-us  to  the  people  amongst  whom  his  works 
had  been  chiefly  wrought,  that  art  exalted  unto  heaven,  shult 
be  thrust  down  to  hell;  for  if  the  mighty  works  which  have  been 
done  in  thee,  had  been  done  in  Tyre  and  Sidon,  they  would  have 
continued  unto  this  day.^  To  avert  a  similar  doom,  turn  at  once 
to  your  offended  Lord.  Behold  his  golden  sceptre  now 
extended  towards  you.  Behold  the  day  of  grace  still  shines. 
Behold  all  things  are  ready;  approach  his  footstool  and  live. 
But  let  your  submission  be  cokdial,.  Yield  really  to  the 
call  of  Revelation.  Give  your  heart  to  your  God.  Enter 
upon  Christianity  with  affection,  with  earnestness,  with  a 
persuasion  of  its  infinite  importance.  Stop  not  short  in  for- 
mal acquiescence,  external  profession,  a  worldly  and  repu- 
table piety,  a  tame  faith,  an  outward  attendance  on  the  sac- 
raments, occasional  acts  of  duty.  All  this  is  mockery  and 
insult,  when  put  in  the  place  of  a  real  reception  of  Chris- 
tianity. God  demands  a  contrite  spirit — God  demands 
grief  and  prostration  of  soul  on  account  of  sin — God 
demands  a  faith  which  bows  cordially  and  with  delight  to 
the  testimony  of  his  word — God  demands  a  reliance  upon 
the  merits  and  sacrifice  of  his  Son — God  demands  a  pene- 
trating sense  of  the  need  of  his  grace  and  Holy  Spirit — 
God  demands  the  renunciation  of  every  sin  and  the  per- 
formance of  a  willing  and  filial  obedience.  Yield,  then, 
this  heartfelt  subjection.  The  great  God  deserves  it  all; 
the  eternal  Saviour  has  merited  it  all;  the  divine  Sanctifier 
will  produce  it  all.  Only  begin  with  full  purpose  of  soul. 
Read,  pray,  meditate;  separate  from  acknowledged  sin;  per- 
form known  duties.  Especially,  implore  those  prevenient 
aids  and  operations  of  grace,  which  are  essential  to  all  fur- 
ther progress.  God  puts  religion  into  the  understanding  by 
reasons,  but  into  the  heart  by  grace.  Seek  the  influence  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  first  entrance  on  your  course.  His  in- 
fluence, like  dew  on  the  face  of  nature,  softens,  penetrates, 
refreshes,  and  fructifies.  To  put  religion  into  the  heart 
by  menace,  by  force,  is  not  to  put  religion  there,  but  terror. 

(t)  Matthew. 


LECT.  XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  365 

Grace  makes  all  possible,  spontaneous,  delightful,  effec- 
tive— it  is  itself  a  foretaste  and  integral  part  of  salvation. 
Thus,  will  your  submission  to  Christianity  be  a  matter  of 
choice.  Thus  it  will  be,  not  a  fit  of  devotion,  but  the  fixed 
purpose  of  the  soul  touched  by  a  divine  hand,  aware  of 
what  it  is  about,  sensible  of  the  dangers  and  temptations 
before  it,  and  yet  resolved  in  the  strength  of  God  to  abide 
by  its  determination.  He  fhat  putieth  his  hand  to  the  plough 
and  looketh  back,  is  not  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  The 
obligations  of  the  Christian  faith  will  never  terminate  till 
the  struggle  of  life  is  over.  The  snares  and  seductions  of 
the  world  will  never  cease  to  solicit.  The  malice  and 
powers  of  Satan  will  constantly  embarrass  and  annoy. 
You  must  be  well  resolved  then.  If  you  have  seen  the 
majestic  truths  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  and  the  crumb- 
ling ruins  in  which  the  infidel  ramparts  lie,  do  not  tempt 
God  by  hesitation  and  tampering  with  conscience;  but 
boldly  and  determinately  take  your  stand.  Enter  the  sa- 
cred building;  abide  under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty; 
dwell  in  the  glory  of  his  temple;  persevere  in  your  wor- 
ship and  obedience  there,  till  you  are  summoned  from 
this  lower  and  preparatory  scene  of  duty  to  that  upper 
and  more  glorious  place,  where  the  Lord  God  and  the 
Lamb  shall  be   the  light  thereof — and  you  shall  remain 

AS      A    PILLAR     IM     THE    TEMPLE      OF      YOUR    GoD,    AND    GO    OUT 
NO    MORE." 


RECAPITULATION       OF       INTERNAL       EVIDENCES. 

We  have  now  completed  that  rapid  and  popular  view  of 
the  evidences  of  Christianity,  which  we  proposed. 

After  having  led  our  youthful  inquirer  around  the  bul- 
warks of  the  heavenly  city,  and  shown  him  that  the  number 
and  strength  of  the  fortifications  were  not  only  impregnable 
to  the  forces  of  the  enemy,  but  were  such  as  to  give  full 
repose  and  sense  of  security  to  the  inhabitants;  we  have 
taken  him  and  brought  him  within  the  sacred  defences,  we 

(u)  Rev.  iii.  12. 


366  LECTURES  ON  THE  [lECT.  XXV. 

have  led  him  into  the  heart  of  the  citadel,  and  pointed  out 
the  strength  of  the  inward  walls,  and  the  proportion  and  de- 
sign of  the  several  buildings.  We  have  shown  him  that 
the  internal  constitution  of  the  place  is  equally  excellent 
with  the  external  bulwarks.  We  have  made  him  go  through 
the  divisions  and  mark  the  uses  of  tiie  various  edifices,  com- 
pare their  parts,  observe  their  suitableness  for  the  especial 
purposes  for  which  they  were  projected;  and  have  thus 
aimed  at  filling  his  mind  with  high  conceptions  of  the  wis- 
dom of  the  divine  Architect. 

We  have  led  him,  above  all,  to  the  sanctuary,  which 
adorns  and  protects  the  city,  which  is  the  joy  of  the  whole 
earth — the  palace  of  the  great  and  eternal  King. 

We  were  sure,  indeed,  beforehand,  that  a  fortress  framed 
by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty,  would  concur  in  its  outward 
and  inward  character.  And  though  we  did  not,  and  could 
not,  allow  our  young  inquirer  to  sit  in  judgment  with  presump- 
tuous confidence  on  what  he  might  think  ought  to  be  the 
arrangement  of  the  parts,  nor  to  suspend  his  loyal  obe- 
dience on  their  agreement  with  his  preconceived  notions; 
yet  we  assured  him  that  if,  in  a  simple  reliance  on  the  skill 
which  devised  the  exterior  fortifications,  he  would  examine 
the  internal  arrangements,  with  the  view  of  confirming  his 
faith  and  elevating  his  idea  of  the  glory  of  his  King,  he 
would  be  astonished  at  the  proofs  of  contrivance  and  fore- 
sight in  every  part. 

This,  then,  he  has  done.  The  result  has  surpassed  his 
expectations — the  harmony  and  strength  of  the  interior 
itself,  the  divisions  of  the  city,  the  beauty  of  the  chief 
places  of  concourse,  the  glory  and  sanctity  of  the  temple, 
have  filled  him  with  admiration.  Some  things,  indeed, 
have  exceeded  his  comprehension — for  no  human  mind  can 
have  the  furniture  or  experience  requisite  for  judging  of 
such  extensive  and  complicated  details — but  he  has  un- 
derstood enough  to  allay  his  fears,  to  raise  his  gratitude, 
and  to  induce  him  to  rely  with  confidence  on  the  successful 
issue  of  the  combat. 

In  other  words,  the  internal  evidences  of  Christianity 
have  appeared  as  admirable  as  the  external. 


LECT.    XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  3G7 

This    leads  us,  then,  briefly  to  review  the  argument 

ARISING      FROM       THE      INTERNAL     PROOFS     OF      CHRISTIANITY, 

which  have  formed  the  subject  of  this  division  of  our  course, 
as  we  reviewed  the  argument  from  the  external  at  the  close 
of  our  last  volume. 

In  doing  this,  let  us  notice  the  general  nature  of  the 
argument,  the  particular  topics  into  which  it  divided  itself 
— its  remarkable  agreement  with  man's  probationary  state, 
and  the  inseparable  unity  of  the  whole. 

1.  You  will  remember  that  the  general  nature  of  the 
argument  springs  from  those  various  marks  of  excellency  in 
the  inward  frame-work  of  Christianity  which  serve  to  con- 
firm our  faith  in  its  divine  original.  They  are  the  internal 
characters  of  divinity  which  strike  every  considerate  in- 
quirer, the  more  he  studies  the  religion,  and  compares  it 
with  the  powers,  and  tendencies,  and  wants  of  such  a  crea- 
ture as  man,  and  with  the  confessed  dealings  of  Almighty 
God  in  his  natural  providence  and  moral  government  of  the 
world. 

For  the  main  features  of  Christianity  are  not  in  all  re- 
spects unknown  to  man;  but  rather  fall  in  with  his  purest 
notions  of  God  and  conscience  and  moral  duty  on  the  one 
hand,  and  with  his  uniform  experience  of  human  weakness 
and  depravity,  on  the  other.  They  confirm  every  thing 
which  natural  religion  guessed  at,  rather  than  knew;  en- 
larging, purifying,  correcting,  elevating  the  remains  of  the 
original  Revelation,  and  the  dictates  of  that  moral  nature, 
which,  though  darkened  and  corrupted  by  the  fall,  is  not 
wholly  obliterated  and  lost.  They  contain,  besides,  a  new 
and  mysterious  dispensation  of  mercy  in  the  incarnation 
and  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God,  which  gives  energy  to  the 
dormant  principles  of  essential  religion,  makes  them  prac- 
ticable and  delightful,  and  carries  them  onto  all- the  ends 
for  which  they  were  first  implanted. 

Accordingly,  in  tracing  out  these  effects  and  bearings  of 
the  Christian  Religion,  we  discovered  innumerable  marks 
of  design,  of  contrivance,  of  divine  sublimity  and  harmony, 
of  agreement  with  the  wants  and  necessities,  the  desires  and 
anticipations  of  man. 


368  LECTUBES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXV. 

These  are  the  internal  evidences;  and  they  furnish  a 
most  conclusive  argument  in  support  of  those  external  cre- 
dentials of  the  religion  by  which  its  reception  is  first  secured. 
They  add  the  test  of  experience  and  observation  to  the  his- 
torical testimony  of  authenticity,  credibility,  divirte  author- 
ity, miracles,  prophecy,  supernatural  propagation,  promi- 
nent good  effects:  And  when  these  internal  proofs  are  still 
further  confirmed  by  the  inward  witness  of  Christianity  to 
the  heart,  in  its  answers  to  prayer,  in  its  fulfilment  of 
all  its  promises,  in  its  communication  of  the  grace  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  in  its  actually  changing  and  elevating 
the  whole  moral  character  of  man,  there  seems  to  be  every 
imaginable  species  of  evidence  combined. 

All  the  faculties  and  feelings  of  man's  nature  are  brought 
to  bear  testimony  to  the  truth  of  Christianity.  His  common 
sense  and  ordinary  capacity  of  judgment  in  the  external 
evidences:  his  heart  and  affections,  his  faculty  of  tracing 
out  final  ends,  his  perception  of  harmony  and  beauty,  in  the 
INTERNAL  proofs:  au  inward  consciousness  of  moral  health, 
and  peace,  and  joy,  communicated  to  the  mind:  an  experi- 
ence of  the  highest  practical  good  effects  produced  in  him,' 
in  the  test  and  interior  witness. 

Let  us  suppose  a  case,  to  illustrate  the  force  of  the  inter- 
nal argument.  If  a  philosopher  had  a  revelation  made  to 
him  of  the  system  of  the  creation,  he  would  begin  by  con- 
sidering the  historical  proofs  of  the  divine  authority  of  the 
communication.  Here  he  would  rest  at  first.  Afterwards, 
when  he  found  there  was  nothing  in  it  directly  contradic- 
tory to  the  fixed  laws  of  nature  apparent  in  the  small  por- 
tions of  matter  which  he  had  before  subjected  to  his  experi- 
ments, but  that  every  thing  went  to  confirm  the  results  of 
his  narrow  observations,  whilst  all  seemed  intended  for  his 
convenience,  relief,  assistance,  in  many  important  respects, 
of  which  he  was  before  ignorant, — this  would  exceedingly 
confirm  his  faith  in  the  truth  of  the  revelation.  He  would 
not  be  surprised  to  find  much  in  it  that  was  new,  much 
unthought  of,  many  uses  and  plans  which  he  had  never  been 
able  to  conceive  or  conjecture;  a  vast  enlargement  of  the 


LECT.    XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITY.  369 

field  of  vision;  many  causes  of  things  laid  open;  and 
much  declared  to  him  that  was  mysterious,  incomprehensi- 
ble, beyond  and  above  his  finite  powers.  But  if,  in  the 
midst  of  all  this,  he  constantly  found  that  the  facts  in  nature, 
as  they  had  lain  before  his  view,  were  confirmed,  that  every 
thing  agreed  with  his  previous  experiments  and  observation; 
and  if,  moreover,  he  found  that  the  practical  results  of  the 
whole  were  some  most  important  benefits  to  himself,  these 
convictions  would  raise  his  faith  in  the  divine  origin  of  the 
communication  to  the  utmost  height.^' 

Such  is  the  nature  of  the  argument  from  the  internal  evi- 
dences. 

2.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  recapitulate  the 
DETAILS  of  this  evidence.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to 
do  more  than  refer  you  to  the  adaptatiois'^  to  the  state  and 
wants  of  man,  which  we  found  to  pervade  Christianity — as 
contrivance  and  provision  for  his  necessities  pervade  the  visi- 
ble creation. 

Nor  need  I  do  more  than  refer  to  that  plan  of  redemption, 
formed  before  the  ages,  of  which  the  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity'' are  the  development,  and  of  which  the  practical 
summary  is  the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  man. 

Much  less  need  I  dwell  on  tlie  morals  >  of  the  gospel,  in 
which  Christianity  comes  down  to  the  conscience  of  every 
human  being,  sets  right  the  mistakes  of  all  the  sages  of  an- 
tiquity, and  presents  a  morality,  as  practicable  as  it  is  pure 
and  elevated;  and  which,  flowing  from  the  doctrines,  car- 
ries with  it  a  demonstrative  evidence  of  the  whole  Revela- 
tion. 

But  I  must  pause  for  one  instant,  to  remind  you  of  the 
inimitable  perfections  of  our  Lord's  characteh,  ^  in  his 
mediatorial  ofllce,  his  personal  and  most  lovely  human  vir- 
tues, and  his  conduct  as  the  founder  of  a  religion.  Yes, 
the  character  of  Christ  embodies  the  Christianity  which  he 
taugiit;  whilst  the  very  facts  of  his  incarnation  and  sacrifice 
form  the  ground-work  of  the  doctrines  which  he  revealed. 
The  sun  in  the  firmament  is  not  a  more  glorious  centre  of 

(v)  Verplank.  (w)  Lect.  xiv.  (x)  Lcct.  xv. 

(y)  Led.  xvi.  (z)  Lect.  xvii. 

47 


370  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXV. 

the  natural  creation,  than  Jesus  Christ  is  of  the  spiritual. 
All  converges  towards  him,  centres  In  him,  tends  to  illus- 
trate and  glorify  him. 

I  will  not  again  speak  of  the  inward  witness''  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  fulfilment  of  all  its  promises  of  grace  to  man; 
because  we  have  given  it  a  large  consideration  in  the  course 
of  our  Lectures.  But  it  seems  to  bring  down  the  proof 
to  that  very  test  of  matter  of  fact  and  actual  phenom- 
ena, of  which  both  the  natural  and  moral  philosopher 
so  loudly  boast;  and  which  nothing  but  prejudice  and 
irreligion  of  heart  can  prevent  them  from  acknowledging 
in  Christianity. 

After  these  prominent  points,  need  I  refer,  or  at  least,  do 
more  than  refer, — to  what  we  have  so  lately  considered,  the 
OBJECTIONS  ^  raised  against  Christianity,  both  in  themselves, 
and  as  respects  the  persons  who  advance  them? 

On  the  topics  of  FAITH,  interpketation,  and  obligation,' 
I  say  nothiniz;  because  they  are  involved  in  every  step  we 
have  taken,  and  cannot  be  denied,  without  overthrowing  all 
trust  and  confidence  amongst  men;  all  honesty  and  fair 
dealing  in  the  intercourse  of  society;  all  that  moral  sense 
and  conscience  which  distinguish  men  from  the  inferior 
creation  much  more  than  the  barren  possession  of  reason. 
In  short,  he  that  enters  fully  into  the  preceding  arguments, 
will  be  the  first  to  yield  to  the  inevitable  consequencesflow- 
ing  from  them. 

But  I  advert  to  a  subject,  interposed  amongst  all  these — 
the  TENDENCY  of  Christianity'' — which  1  have  reserved  for 
the  purpose  of  making  one  reflection.  For,  if  in  addition  to 
all  the  above  evidences,  there  is  in  Christianity  an  innate 
and  strong  direction  and  bias  towards  human  happiness  in 
the  highest  sense  of  the  term;  if  the  known  hindrances  are 
capable  of  being  enumerated;  if  those  hindrances  are  grad- 
ually being  overcome,  and  arc  now  daily  lessening;  if  the 
good  eli'ccts  of  the  religion  have  un  iformly  burst  forth,  as  a 
mighty  river,  in  proportion  as  the  hindrances  have  been 
removed,  and  have  fertilized  the  face  of  the  adjacent  lands; 

(a)  Lects.  xix.  and  xx.  (t')  Lects.  xxi.  and  xxii. 

(c)  Lects.  xxiii.  xxiv.  and  xxv.  (d)  Lcct.  xviii. 


LECT.  XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  371 

if  the  religion  itself  foretels  the  chief  impediments  to  this 
tendency,  and  points  out  the  causes  of  them  in  men's  abuse 
of  the  divine  mercies,  whilst  it  limits  their  duration;  if  the 
same  records  declare  an  ultimate  aad  glorious  consumma- 
tion as  about  to  take  place,  when  all  the  tendencies  of 
Christianity  shall  be  turned  into  effects,  and  the  whole  world 
be  a  scene  of  light,  and  peace,  and  holiness;  and  if  every 
sincere  Christian  feels  in  himself  this  tendency,  and  is 
engaged  in  removing  obstacles  out  of  the  way  of  it,  and 
hastening  its  progress  in  himself  and  others; — if  this  be  so; 
then,  I  say,  the  crown  is  placed  on  the  brow  of  the  Chris- 
tian evidences,  and  every  species  of  proof  is  accomplished 
by  this  finishing  point;  then,  I  say,  the  tendency  within 
Christianity  runs  on  parallel  with  the  predicted  course  of 
divine  prophecy,  which  forms  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
of  the  external  proofs  from  without  it;  and  the  only  demand 
upon  man's  reason,  is  to  acknowledge  his  own  ignorance, 
as  to  the  origin  and  permission  of  evil,  and  the  designs 
and  will  of  the  incomprehensible  God;  and  to  repose  his 
faith  in  the  wisdom,  justice,  and  mercy  of  the  almighty  and 
most  glorious  Judge  of  the  world — a  demand  so  natural, 
that  it  is  surprising  it  should  ever  have  been  questioned. 
3.  And  this  touches  upon  that  probationary  and  iimpkr- 
FECT  STATE  in  which  man  confessedly  is,  and  with  which 
the  general  nature  of  the  internal  evidences  of  Christianity 
remarkably  corresponds.  Undoubtedly,  the  sceptic  may,  if 
he  please,  reject  all  this  mass  of  evidence;  undoubtedly  he 
may  refuse  to  obey  the  Christian  Revelation;  undoubtedly 
he  may  magnify  petty  diificuities,  and  lend  himself  to  specu- 
lative reasonings.  That  is,  he  may  act,  with  regard  to 
Christianity,  just  as  he  acts  with  regard  to  God's  natural 
providence,  or  his  moral  government  of  man;  he  may  pre- 
tend that  all  is  involved  in  darkness,  and  that  he  can  see  no 
clear  path  before  him.  Thus  the  youth  may  also  conduct 
himself  in  human  life.  He  may  refuse  to  take  precautions, 
to  form  habits,  to  look  forward  to  future  scenes  of  didiculty, 
to  act  with  prudence  and  self-restraint;  he  may  spurn  any 
moral  subjection  to  the  claims  of  the  Almighty,  or  to  the 
checks  upon  the  appetites,  which  his  natural  law  imposes. 


372  LECTURES  ON  THE         [lECT.  XXV. 

But  how  does  he,  or  can  he,  escape  the  consequences  of 
that  righteous  retribution  of  the  great  moral  Governor, 
which  involve  and  surround  hirnr'  Can  he  elude  the  sanc- 
tions of  the  general  religion,  resting  on  the  faint  traces  of 
Revelation,  and  the  moral  nature  of  man,  which  inclose  the 
transgressor,  as  in  a  net?  Can  a  careless,  incautious  youth 
escape  a  miserable  and  disgraceful  age — can  negligence, 
imprudence,  and  want  of  foresight  be  always  repaired  by 
any  after-repentance — can  the  indulgence  of  pride  and  self- 
importance  be  separated  from  inward  torments  and  outward 
contentions — can  an  irreligious  contempt  of  moral  restraints 
insure  itself  against  self-disapj)robation,  disease,  weakened 
faculties,  a  disturbed  conscience,  remorse,  anticipations  of 
judgment,  dread  of  eternity,  despair? 

Apply  this  to  Christianity.  The  lives  and  deaths  of  infi- 
dels demonstratively  show  that  the  very  same  moral  and 
judicial  punishments  are  inflicted  on  the  objector  against 
Revelation.  And  all  this  so  agrees  with  the  probationary 
state  of  man,  as  to  form  a  strong  additional  confirmation 
that  the  whole  system  of  government  in  natural  providence, 
in  essential  and  primeval  religion,  and  in  Christianity,  pro- 
ceeds from  the  same  divine  hand,  is  governed  by  the  same 
general  laws,  and  conspires  to  the  same  end?  ^ 

4.  Let  the  humble  inquirer,  then,  collect  all  the 
SCATTERED  RAYS  OF  LIGHT,  flowiug  from  the  scvcral  branches 
of  the  divine  argument,  and  let  him  remember  that  these 
series  of  proofs,  which  are  necessarily  considered  in  separ- 
ate parts,  for  the  purpose  of  a  better  investigation,  form 
but  one  uniform,  candid,  and  inseparable  body  of  testimony; 
which,  like  the  light  of  the  sun,  though  separated  and 
divaricated  into  the  various  colors  of  blue,  and  green,  and 
red,  and  the  other  colors  of  the  prism,  whilst  passing  through 
our  mind,  and  being  subjected  to  our  examination;  is  yet, 
in  itself,  one  and  the  same  eflfulgent  glory,  shedding  light 
and  warmth  from  its  mighty  orb.*^ 

Yes;  the  whole  of  the  Christian  evidences  form  one  argu- 
ment, one  attestation,  one   inseparable  and   irresistible  ap- 

(e)  Duller.  (f)  Warburton. 


LECT.    XXV.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  373 

peal  to  the  human  understanding,  conscience,  and  heart. 
From  the  simplest  proof  of  the  authenticity  of  our  books, 
to  the  last  evidence  of  the  inspiration  of  all  their  contents; 
and  from  the  first  point  of  the  adaptation,  to  the  closing 
topic  of  the  indispensable  moral  obligation  of  receiving  the 
religion,  all  constitutes  one  undivided  chain  of  reasoning, 
the  most  indissoluble  and  most  binding  ever  offered  to  an 
accountable  being. 

And  the  grand  probation  of  man  now  is,  whether  he  will 
obey  this  Revelation,  and  submit  his  reason  and  heart  to 
God;  or  whether  he  will  follow  his  pride  and  passions,  and 
dare  the  authority  of  the  great  Lord  of  all. 

God  grant  that  every  reader  of  these  Lectures  may  so 
weigh  the  moral  obligation  under  which  he  lies,  as  to  be 
WISE  IN  time;  as  to  follow  the  directions  of  the  Bible,  and 
obtain  the  grace  necessary  for  welcoming  it  with  humble 
faith  and  cheerful  obedience; — that  thus  all  the  blessed 
ends  of  the  Christian  Revelation  may  be  accomplished  in 
him  here  and  hereafter! 


LECTURE    XXVI. 


CONCLUSION  OF  THE  ENTIRE  COURSE. 


John  xx.  30,  31. 

And  many  other  signs  truly  did  Jesus  in  the  presence  of  his 

disciples,  which  are  not  written  in  this  book. 
But   these  are  written  that  ye  might  believe   that  Jesus  is  the 

Christ,  the   Son  of  God;  and  that  believing  ye  might  have 

life  through  his  name. 

After  the  statements  made  in  the  last  Lecture,  on  the  ob- 
ligation of  receiving  the  Christian  Revelation,  and  the  re- 
view there  taken  of  the  result  of  the  argument  from  the  in- 
ternal evidences,  nothing  now  remains  for  us  but  to  retire 
back  from  this  minute  inspection,  to  such  a  comprehensive 
survey  as  may  allow  us  to  take  in  at  once  the  distinct  out- 
lines of  all  the  divisions  of  our  subject,  and  observe  how 
they  severally  harmonize,  both  in  their  various  component 
parts  and  with  each  other;  and  then  to  conclude  the  whole 
of  the  great  argument,  which  has  extended  through  these 
two  volumes,  by  an  address  to  the  different  classes  of  per- 
sons who  may  be  supposed  to  be  most  interested. 

But  where  shall  we  take  our  station  to  seize  this  point  of 
view?  After  we  have  examined  at  so  much  length  the  dif- 
ferent branches  of  the  stream,  and  have  paused  at  each  ex- 


i 


LECT.  XXVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  375 

amination  to  survey  the  scenes  before  us,  whither  shall  we 
ascend  in  order  to  catch  the  course  and  flow  of  the  whole 
river? 

Let  us  first  view  the  progress  of  proof  as  it  has  been 
rolling  down  from  its  earliest  rise,  and  been  augmenting  in 
its  magnitude  and  force  to  the  present  hour.  Let  us  then 
notice  The  incidental  and  unexpected  manner  in  which 
the  flood  has  been  increased.  And,  lastly,  let  us  contem- 
plate its  actual  volume,  and  the  position  in  which  we  now 
STAND  as  to  the  hopes  of  its  visiting  and  fertilizing  the 
whole  earth. 

L     Let  us  view  the  progress  of  proof  as  it  has  been 

ROLLING  DOWN  FROM  ITS  EARLIEST  RISE  TO  THE  PRESENT 
HOUR. 

For  observe  how  small  and  imperceptible  is  the  first 
source  of  the  Stream.  You  scarcely  distinguish  its  narrow 
thread.  And  yet  trace  its  progress.  It  increases  as  it  flows. 
In  every  advance  the  waters  are  augmented.  From  the 
original  promise  made  to  our  first  parents,  to  the  present 
hour,  the  evidences  of  Revelation  have  been  in  progress. 
For  six  thousand  years  has  our  religion  been  before  the 
world.  The  expulsion  from  Eden  was  accompanied  by 
the  first  discovery  of  mercy.  During  the  patriarchal  age, 
when  human  life  extended  through  centuries,  truth  was 
handed  down  by  tradition,  by  the  instituted  sacrifices,  and 
the  consecration  of  the  sabbath  to  religious  worship.  The 
call  of  Abraham,,  and  the  rite  of  circumcision,  increase  the 
means  of  knowledge  to  mankind.  The  Pentateuch  is  pub- 
lished, and  consigns  to  a  written  record  the  history  of  the 
primaeval  ages,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  fall  and  the  promis- 
ed recovery.  The  Mosaic  miracles,  the  Mosaic  redemption, 
the  Mosaic  Canaan,  are  proofs  to  a  lost  world  of  the  true 
faith.  Kings  and  prophets  arise.  The  Jewish  name  and 
religion  spread;  and  with  them  the  evidences  of  Reve- 
lation. • 

The  Babylonish  captivity  plants  missionary  prophets  in 
the  heart  of  the  greatest  heathen  monarchy.  For  seventy 
years  the  meek  and  courageous  spirit  of  Daniel  commends 
his  God,  his  religion,  his  prophetic  outlines  of  future  mercy, 


376  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXVI. 

to  mankind.  Before  the  birth  of  the  Saviour  himself,  a 
fame  pervades  the  world  that  some  one,  springing  from  the 
East,  should  govern  the  nations. 

The  apostles  go  forth  and  proclaim  an  universal  religion. 
They  carry  the  credentials  with  them,  and  attest  the  truth 
of  the  preceding  dispensations  of  the  Almighty,  whilst  they 
establish  their  own.  The  world  is  penetrated  with  the 
Christian  evidences.  Every  nation  is  visited,  warned,  in- 
vited. During  the  lapse  of  three  centuries,  the  miraculous 
propagation  goes  on,  and  becomes  itself  an  additional 
proof  to  the  following  ages.  The  holy  lives,  and  constancy 
unto  martyrdom,  of  the  apostles  and  their  converts,  silently 
provide  further  evidences.  Constantino  acknowledges  the 
force  of  the  rising  religion,  and  Paganism  is  dethroned.^ 
In  the  mean  lime,  prophecy  begins  to  unfold  yet  wider 
the  roll  of  futurity,  and  each  grand  revolution  in  the  for- 
tunes of  the  church  is  found  to  have  been  foretold  in  her 
mystic  pages.  The  character  of  the  Messiah  is  more  and 
more  acknowledged.  The  dispersion  and  yet  distinct  pre- 
servation of  tl>e  Jewish  people,  are  a  prophetic  miracle. 
The  persecutions  of  the  Christian  faith  confirm  the  word  of 
prophecy,  and  enlarge  the  proofs  of  its  divine  origin. 

Apostacies  arise  in  the  east  and  west.**  Christianity 
seems  to  fade  before  the  imposture  of  Mahomet,  and  the 
superstitions,  tyranny,  and  idolatry  of  papal  Rome.  The 
spiritual  church  is  driven  into  privacy;  and  she  there  dis- 
covers these  very  apostacies  to  have  been  largely  delineated 
in  the  prophetic  word;  and  she  sees  in  the  anti-christ,  and 
the  man  of  sin,  and  the  apocalyptic  visions,  new  evidences 
of  the  Christian  faith. 

With  the  revival  of  learning,  the  proofs  of  Revelation 
pour  in  with  a  fuller  tide  upon  mankind,  as  an  awakened 
curiosity  and  a  widened  sphere  of  observation  open  new 
channels.*  The  Reformation  springs  forth  and  appeals  to 
the  divine  records,  collects  fresh  evidences,  re-assumes 
truth,  sweeps  away  the  incumbrance  of  human  tradition, 
exhibits  Christianity  to  the  faith  and  obedience  of  mankind. 

(g)  A.  D.  312.  (Ii)  At  tlie  commencement  of  the  seventh  century, 

(i)  The  close  of  the  fifteenth  century. 


LECT.    XXVI. J         EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  377 

The  lives  and  deaths  of  tlie  Reformers,  the  effects  of  their 
doctrine,  the  accomplishment  of  the  promised  grace  of 
Revelation  in  its  operations  upon  the  human  heart,  are  ap- 
pealed to,  and  place  the  evidences  of  Christianity  in  a  new 
blaze  of  glory.  What  superstition  and  ignorance  had 
wrought  for  ten  centuries,  is  overthrown;  and  Christianity 
appears  fresh,  and  vigorous,  and  sacred  as  at  its  first  birth. 

JVew  opponents  soon  appear  in  the  midst  of  Protestant 
Europe;  or,  rather,  human  corruption  assumes  a  new  form. 
Men  arise  who  borrow  from  Christianity  a  purer  creed  as  to 
the  foundations  of  religion,  and  affect  to  be  followers  of  nat- 
ural light,  and  to  believe  in  the  being  and  government  of  God 
and  a  future  judgment,  but  reject  the  claims  of  Christianity. 
Against  the  deist  has  the  combat  been  since  carried  on;  for 
Paganism  has  no  defenders,  and  the  corrupt  religion  of 
Rome  admits  the  foundations  of  the  Christian  faith — and  has 
occasioned  a  copious  and  masterly  array  of  proofs  for  the 
conviction  of  every  candid  inquirer,  and  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  young  and  unstable  in  the  Christian  Church. 

The  tide  has  thus  been  swelling  in  each  age,  and  is  still 
rising;  nor  does  there  seem  any  other  limits  to  the  accumu- 
lation of  Christian  evidences,  than  those  which  exist  as  to 
the  works  of  creation  and  providence.  You  want  no  addi- 
tional proofs  there.  The  grand  primary  facts  speak  the 
glory  of  God.  Yet  each  diligent  and  observant  mind  lights 
upon  new  phenomena,  or  combinations  of  phenomena, 
which  confirm  his  previous  belief.     So  it  is  in  Ciiristianity. 

The  evidences  of  Revelation  have  kept  pace  with  the 
progress  of  the  human  mind  under  all  circumstances,  as 
well  since  the  revival  of  learning  as  before.  Its  almighty 
Author  has  planted  in  it  the  seeds  of  endless  development. 
Every  branch  of  evidence  belongs  to  a  vast  system  of  truth, 
fitted  in  difterent  ways  to  the  various  understandings,  char- 
acters, and  stations  of  those  to  vvhf)m  the  gospel  is  offered. 
An  argument  is  held  out  to  every  inquirer;  to  the  scholar, 
who  can  make  the  whole  of  human  learning  tributary  to  his 
investigation:  and  the  unlettered  seeker  after  truth,  who 
draws  all  his  knowledge  from  his  own  heart  and  the  sense 
48 


378  LECTURES    ON   THE  [lECT.    XXVI. 

of  his  own  wants.J  The  simplicity  of  the  Bible  in  its  evi- 
dences, conceals  a  depth  of  \visdf)m,  a  fund  of  principles, 
an  extent  of  adaptation,  which  have  only  been  more  and 
more  displayed  as  the  progress  of  sound  learning  and  just 
reasoning  have  given  occasion  for  the  examination.  Every 
thing  in  human  knowledge  has  fallen  into  its  tide  and  aided 
its  flow.  Historical  researches  penetrate  the  most  obscure 
recesses  of  past  events,  and  pour  their  contributions  into  the 
Christian  treasury.  The  studies  of  natural  philosophy  open 
new  worlds  of  science,  and  prepare  a  wider  bed  for  the 
divine  religion. 

The  philosophy  of  mind  at  length  admits  all  the  founda- 
tions of  our  argument  by  confining  itself  to  facts  and  ex- 
perience,*' as  her  sister  science  has   long  done.     The  sub- 

(j)  Verplank. 

(k)  Al  this  moment  two  instances  occur  to  me:  one  in  moral  philosophy,  the 
other  in  natural;  which  I  cite  merely  as  specimens.  Mr.  Locke's  doctrine  concern- 
ing the  sources  of  ideas,  has  been  generally  admitted,  though  not  without  a  secret 
suspicion,  that  there  must  be  something  wrong  in  the  philosophy  of  the  statement;  as 
an  universal  notion  of  deity,  some  elementary  principles  of  morals  impressed  by 
Almighty  God  upon  the  conscience  of  man,  are  taken  for  granted  in  Christianity. 
The  latest  and  most  intelligent  writers  seem  now  to  agree,  that  there  are,  in  fact,  in- 
nate laws  of  thought  by  which  the  connexion  and  relation  of  our  original  ideas  are 
governed.  Locke  had  maintained  the  sources  of  our  primary  ideas  to  be  the  objects 
of  sense;  and  he  had  referred  us  for  our  complex  ones  to  the  connexion  and  relation 
of  those  original  ideas  one  with  another.  And  this  relation  is  now  settled  and  acknow- 
ledged by  Brown,  our  greatest  metaphysician,  to  depend  on  certain  natural  laws  of 
the  human  mind.  These  laws  may  be  termed  innate.  Thus  Locke  and  Stillingflcet 
are,  after  a  century  and  a  half,  reconciled;  and  philosophy  is  found  to  accord  with 
Revelation  more  explicitly  as  to  the  original  impress  of  God  on  the  human  faculties 
and  powers.     This  remark  was  made  by  Bishop  James. 

Again,  in  natural  philosophy,  water  had  for  ages  been  considered  as  a  primary 
and  simple  element.  Modern  chemists  have  proved  it  by  experiment,  to  consist  of 
inflammable  and  vital  air.*  They  have  also  proved  that  these  gases,  mixed  in  the 
proponion  to  constitute  water, t  form  the  most  dreadfully  explosi\e  mixture  known 
in  nature.  Volcanic  mountains  are  probably  nothing  but  vast  machines,  where  these 
.gases  have  btfsn  generated,  and  produced  those  explosions  and  detonations  which 
have  astonished  mankind  in  every  age.  'I'he  decomposition  of  wa-ter  precedes  the 
explosions.  Before  any  great  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  not  only  does  the  water  disap- 
pear in  all  the  wells  of  Naples,  and  other  towns  al  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  but  even 
the  sea  retires,  and  marine  animals,  abandoned  by  their  native  clement,  expire  upon 
the  shore.  When  the  eruption  took  place  which  formed  a  new  mountain  three  miles 
in  circumference,  near  to  the  ancient  Puteoli,  the  whole  of  the  Lucrine  lake  became 
dry.    When  the  gaseous  elements  of  water  then  arc  exposed  to  combustion  in  the 

♦  Or  of  whnt  is  termed  the  hydrogen  and  oxygen  gases, 
t  About  two  portions  of  hydrogen  to  one  of  oxygen. 


LECT.    XXVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  379 

ordinate  branches  of  knowledge,  geography,  chronology, 
geology,  mineralogy,  lend  their  aid  to  the  defence  of  the 
Christian  religion. 

And  all  this  is  the  more  observable,  because,  whilst  the 
proofs  of  Christianity  are  thus  in  progress,  the  objections 
and   reasonings  of  infidelity  are   diminishing   in  force   and 
fading    away.     Truth    takes    root   and   flourishes;    fallacies 
droop  and  die.     They  appear  blooming  for  an  instant;  but, 
wanting  root,  they  perish.     As  conscience  recovers  its  sway, 
and  the  force  of  particular  temptations  is  diminished,  Chris- 
tianity regains  her  dominion  over  the  heart.     Infidelity  now 
has  scarcely  a  plausible  argument   left.'     The   evidences  of 
revelation  strengthen  u|)on  reflection,  mature  with  our  years, 
advance  in  force  and  practical  demonstration  as  we  approach 
eternity,  and  gather  new  brightness  in  the  ti.'ne  of  sickness, 
sorrow,  and    impending    dissolution.     Inhere    never    was   a 
mind  brought  fairly  to  bear  on  thu   subject,  but  fresh  mate- 
rials sprung  up  around  it,  just  in   proportion  to  its  means  of 
knowledge  and  capacities  of  combination;  nor  is  there  any 
period  which   so  fully  illustrates  its  solid  virtue,  as   the  mo- 
ment of  the  decay  of  I'lfe  and  the  lapse  of  all  earthly  things. 

At  the  present  time  Christianity  is  the  religion  of  all  the 
civilized  nations  of  the  world.  After  eighteen  hundred 
years,  she  stands  as  the  acknowledged  source  of  religious 
truth  and  duty.     The  mind  of  man  under  the  greatest  ad- 

bowels  of  the  volcano,  liquid  rocks  are  ejected  in  the  form  of  lava,  whole  mountains 
are  blown  into  the  air,  and  the  explosion  is  heard  to  the  distance  of  many  leagues. 
What  an  illustration  does  this  afford  of  the  power  of  GodI  How  does  it  demonstrate 
to  us  that  the  world  may  at  his  will  be  burnt  up — that  if  he  who  said,  Lei  there  be 
light  and  there,  was  light-r-\i  he  ivho  holds  the  waters  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  were  to 
say  Let  the  waters  be  VECOTHPiisv.D,  the  elements  would  melt  with  fen-ent  heat, 
and  the  heavens  pass  away  imfh  a  great  noise.X 

These  instances  are  taken  from  a  thousand  others;  they  are  by  no  means  necessary 
to  the  Christian  argument'.  Whatever  Mr.  Locke  thought,  the  Scripture  account  of 
man's  moral  nature,  and  the  impress  of  God  upon  hi.s  mind,  was  not  to  be  doubted; 
in  whatever  ignorance  we  might  have  remained  as  to  the  dreadfully  explosive  con- 
stituents of  water,  the  truth  of  the  future  destruction  of  the  world  by  fire,  would  not 
have  been  less  certain. 

But  it  must  be  obvious,  that  facts  such  as  these,  which  illustrate  the  positions  of 
Revelation,  and  manifest  something  of  the  probability  of  the  events  which  Revela- 
tion foreiels,  are  not  without  their  importance. 

(1)  Bisliop  J.  B.  Sumner  apologises  for  answering  an  argument  of  Volney,  on  the 
ground  that,  bad  as  it  is,  it  is  the  only  one  he  can  find  advanced  against  Christianity. 

'  J  2.  Peter  iii.  10.  11. 


380  LECTURES    ON   THE  [lECT.  XXVr. 

vantages,  the  verdict  of  intellect,  is  in  favor  of  Christianity. 
On  such  a  question,  we  are  not  to  estimate  the  weight  of 
authority  by  numbers,  but  by  the  amount  of  inquiry,  by  the 
investigation  actually  made,  by  the  habits  of  intellectual 
effort,  the  knowledge,  the  information,  the  moral  feeling, 
in  those  who  prosecute  it.  In  tiiis  view  one  Christian 
nation  outweighs  all  the  prostrate  people  of  the  Indies  and 
Americas;  and  the  public  attestation  to  the  Christian  faith 
by  the  flower  of  the  human  race,  demonstrates  the  force  of 
its  evidences  upon  the  minds  best  capable  of  estimating 
them  aright. 

In  short,  the    evidences  have  so   accumulated,  that   indi- 
viduals can    only  prosecute    in    detail    certain  divisions    of 
them.     To   enter   upon    the  whole    quesiion    fully,  a  man 
should  be  a  stranger  to  no  branch  of  history  or  science;  he 
must   identify   himself  with   the   designs  of   Providence  in 
every  age;  he  must  be  the  narrator  of  the  wonderful  dispen- 
sations of  God,  and  the  moral  education  of  the  human  race. 
He  must  recount  all  the  labors  of  ihe  vast  society  of  Chris- 
tians, which  is  the  intermediate  chain   between  earth  and 
heaven.     He    must  embrace    the    whole    kindred    of  men, 
nineteen-twentieths    of    wiiom    entered     into    history    with 
Christianity.     He  must  trace  out  the  new  principle  of  action 
which  the  gospel  sets  at  work — that  love  which  constitutes 
such  a  spring  in  the  mechanism  of  social   life,  as  must  en- 
tirely change  human  society,  and  prepare  its  re-construction 
on  a  new  basis,  without  injuring  any  established  relations 
of  it.     He  must  follow  out  the  new  literature   which  Chris- 
tianity has  introduced;  and  trace  out  the  history  of  the  mass 
of  the  nations  of  the  world  in  their  progress  or  their  decline 
— their  civilization,  arts,  sciences,  philosophy,  all  that  char- 
acterises or  modifies   the    moral  existence   of  man.       And 
when  he  has  attempted  this,  or  any  division  of  this  infinite 
subject,  he  will  confess  that  he  has  only  saluted  the  (jues- 
tion  at  the   threshold,  and   that  he  must  leave  to  others  the 
development  of  its  progress  and  accumulation. 

What  a  prospect  this!  What  scenes  stretch  all  around! 
What  an  expansive  and  life-giving  tide  is  Christianity! 
What  a  gradual  but  steady  progress  do  we  percejve  in  its 


LECT.  XXVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  381 

evidences,  from   the  first  source  of  grace  in  paradise  to  the 
present  hour!     But,  in  the  next  place, 

II.    Let  us  observe   the    incidental    and    unexpected 

MANNER     IN    WHICH     THE    FLOOD    HAS    BEEN     THUS    FORMED. 

For  whence  have  come  the  tributary  streams?  Have  arti- 
ficial beds  been  excavated  to  convey  to  it  with  immense 
labor  the  waters  of  other  rivers?  Have  channels  been 
turned  from  their  course,  like  that  of  the  ancient  Euphrates, 
by  the  arm  of  power?  No:  all  has  been  incidental  and 
unlooked  for,  so  far  as  man  has  been  concerned! 

We  have  repeatedly  noticed  the  artless  and  inartificial 
character  of  the  Christian  evidences;  their  independence  of 
each  other;  the  sudden  influx  and  convergence  of  the 
materials  of  proof.  And  now  that  we  are  casting  back  a 
glance  upon  the  whole  subject,  we  repeat  the  remark. 
We  bid  you  reflect  that  all  this  mass  of  testimony  is  not  a 
contrived,  systematic  arrangement,  set  forth  in  the  holy 
Scriptures,  or  prepared  by  inspired  writers,  and  handed 
down  for  the  conviction  of  mankind.  No:  every  thing 
arose  spontaneously.  Circumstances  have  created  the 
Christian  evidences.  Enough  was  always  included  in  the 
Revelation  itself  for  the  conviction  of  every  sincere  inquirer. 
But,  for  the  rest,  all  was  called  forth  by  occasion,  amidst 
the  struggles  of  human  passions  and  the  conflicts  of  the 
church  with  her  foes. 

Christianity,  in  her  native  dignity,  threw  herself  upon 
mankind.  Her  divine  records  plead  her  own  cause.  Here 
is  always  enough  to  verify  a  divine  Revelation.  Every 
thing  else  is  incidental,  and  was  drawn  into  argument  as 
occasion  arose. 

The  first  Christian  apologists  had  no  view  to  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  or  the  conviction  of  nations  then  unborn, 
when  they  were  compelled  to  appeal  to  the  heathen  emper- 
ors, on  the  injustice  of  the  suflerings  to  which  they  were 
exposed.  Their  object  was  to  defend  themselves  from  the 
calumnies  with  which  they  were  assailed,  and  to  effect  the 
conversion  of  their  contemporaries.  What  did  Justin 
Martyr,  or  Tertullian,  or  St.  Augustine,  foresee  of  the  use 
which  would  be  made  of  their  testimony  a  thousand  or  fif- 


382  LECTURES    ON   THE  [lECT.    XXVI. 

teen  hundred  years  after  their  own  times?  Still  less  did 
Tacitus  and  Suetonius  imagine  the  important  purposes  to 
which  their  admissions  of  all  the  chief  facts  of  Christianity 
would  be  turned,  after  the  indignant  contempt  of  the  histo- 
rians themselves  had  become  harmless.  What  did  Julian 
or  Porphyry  foresee  of  the  value  of  those  incidental  notices 
of  the  facts  connected  with  Christianity,  which  escaped 
them  in  the  warmth  of  their  invective  against  the  religion? 
When  Celcus,  in  his  enmity  against  the  gospel,  overwhelmed 
Origen  with  his  sophisms  and  cavils,  little  did  he  imagine 
that,  the  arguments  on  either  side  being  disregarded,  the 
facts  which  were  admitted  in  common,  would  form  a  bul- 
wark of  the  Christian  faith.  Still  less  did  the  Jewish  writers 
conceive  that,  in  attributing  the  Christian  miracles  to  the 
powers  of  an  occult  magic,  they  were  acknowledging  facts 
on  which  we  should  build  our  fiiith,  ages  after  the  hypothe- 
sis of  a  false  philosophy  had  been  exploded. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Christian  religion  marched  on, — in 
the  midst  of  the  scorn  of  the  learned,  the  force  of  the  pow- 
erful, the  hatred  of  governments,  the  malignity  of  the  Hea- 
then and  Jewish  priesthoods — and,  sustained  by  an  invisible 
hand,  made  good  its  cause,  till  Constantine  mounted  the 
throne,  and  the  empire  assumed  tlie  name  of  Christian.  All 
was  natural,  unpretending,  honest  truth. 

Proofs,  however,  began  imperceptibly  to  be  collected. 
The  authenticity  of  the  sacred  books  was  examined;  the  rec- 
ords of  martrys  were  searched  into;  the  tradition  of  ancient 
facts  was  investigated;  ecclesiastical  memoirs  were  com- 
posed; controversies  arose;  the  numbers  on  each  side  are 
mentioned;  the  councils  which  assemble  are  enumerated; 
the  condemnation  of  heretics  is  placed  on  record.  Thus, 
facts  and  doctrines  are  incidentally  ascertained.  Things 
come  out  by  occasions,  by  circumstances  unforeseen  and  un- 
planned. It  is  only  after  a  lapse  of  centuries  that  men's 
attention  is  directed  to  the  collecting  into  a  series  the  suc- 
cessive proofs.  The  tide  of  time  rolls  down,  and  bears  on 
its  surface  the  various  materials,  from  which  diligent  obser- 
vation culls  here  and  there  a  particle  of  unexpected  and  im- 
portant evidence;  as  the  wild  American  gathers  from  the 


LECT.    XXVI.]        EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITY.  383 

bed  of  his  magnificent  rivers  the  minute  but  valuable 
particles  of  gold  and  silver.  As  literature  widens,  the 
scattered  elements  of  proof  are  brought  in — coins,  medals, 
inscriptions,  antiquities,  re-written  manuscripts  discovered 
in  monasteries,  contribute  their  unexpected  testimony. 

Not  only  the  first  occasions  are  unlooked  for,  but  the  sub- 
sequent reasons  for  bringing  out  and  detailing  the  proofs, 
are  equally  incidental. 

A  literary  age  abounds  with  infidelity.  The  credibility 
of  the  gospel  history  is,  after  seventeen  hundred  years, 
reduced  into  regular  proof,'"  for  the  purpose  of  meeting 
the  new  circumstances  of  the  times.  It  is  shown  that  the 
early  fathers  cite  almost  all  the  New  Testament;  and  that 
the  heretics  never  call  in  question  the  authenticity  of  the 
books. 

Yet  further,  multitudes  of  individuals  are  employed  in 
these  works  who  have  given  no  evidence  of  personal  piety, 
or  of  any  firm  faith  in  the  peculiarities  of  the  religion  which 
they  defend.  Some  from  literary  curiosity;  some  from  the 
irritation  of  controversy;  some  from  professional  studies  are 
led  to  contribute  their  quota,  who  yet  avow  a  disbelief  in 
some  of  the  characteristic  doctrines  of  redemption. 

How  much  these  points  increase  the  force  of  the  whole 
argument  in  favor  of  Christianity,  I  need  not  say.  They  do 
this  in  several  ways.  .  l"-^ 

They  show  that  there  has  been  no  effort  in  Christian- 
ity TO  MAKE  OUT  A  CASE;  no  provision  for  petty  difficulties; 
no  timidity  in  passing  through  the  succession  of  ages  and 
nations.  No:  Christianity  walks  on  her  way,  strong  in  her 
native  authority,  and  conscious  that,  on  whatever  side  she 
is  contemplated,  there  is  evidence  enough  for  every  sincere 
inquirer. 

They  also  demonstrate  the  secret  care  of  the  divine 
PROviDF.NCE  over  the  religion,  which,  in  ways  unseen  by 
man,  and  over  which  he  had  no  control,  laid  up  these  ma- 
terials of  proof.  Enough  has  been  preserved  of  the  earliest 
Christian  writers — enough  of  other  kinds  of  evidence,  to 

(in)  By  ihe  labors  of  Lardner  and  his  conlemporaries. 


384  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXVI. 

furnish  us  in  these  latter  days  with  abundant  sources  of  tes- 
timony. 

It  likewise  shows  that  we  are  in  a  series  of  continual 
ACCESSIONS  to  the  evidences  of  religion.  The  case  is  not 
closed.  New  incidents  may  arise,  as  they  have  done  in 
every  preceding  age,  to  confirm  the  proof;  new  manuscripts 
may  be  found;  new  notices  in  heathen  authors;  new  series 
of  quotations  in  the  fathers;  new  monuments  of  antiquity; 
new  lights  from  the  actual  state  of  mankind. 

III.     But    let    us    contemplate   the    stream    of  evidence 

IN  ITS  ACTUAL  MASS  AND  VOLUME  BEFORE  OUR  EYES,  AND 
PRESENTING  THE  HOPE  OF  ITS  BEING  ABOUT  TO  VISIT  AND 
FERTILIZE    THE    WHOLE    EARTH. 

Let  US  view  the  present  flow  and  course  of  the  stream;  let 
us  see  how  far  it  is  now  more  unimpeded  than  in  former 
periods;  more  cleared  of  obstructions;  more  ready  to  burst 
out  into  new  regions,  and  bless  the  most  distant  shores. 

Yes;  never  was  the  great  Christian  argument  so  disem- 
barrassed from  extraneous  matter;  never  did  it  bear  so  di- 
rectly upon  the  consciences  of  men;  never  was  there  a  pe- 
riod of  the  world  when  all  seemed  waiting  for  those  secret 
operations  of  the  divine  mercy,  to  which  all  argument  is 
subordinate,  and  without  which  no  evidences  can  convince 
or  persuade. 

1.  For,  do  we  not  stand  on  the  elevation  of  eighteen 
CENTURIES,  or  rather  of  six  thousand  years?  Does  not 
what  we  have  noticed  of  the  incidental  manner  in  which  the 
Christian  proofs  were  collected,  and  the  immense  aggrega- 
tion of  them,  place  us  on  a  vantage-ground  for  the  further 
prosecution  of  the  argument.^  Does  nut  all  past  experience, 
all  past  history,  all  the  divisions  and  heresies  in  the  visible 
church,  all  the  noble  virtues  in  the  invisible,  all  the  changes 
and  alterations  in  the  attacks  of  the  great  spiritual  adver- 
sary, all  the  exhausted  effects  of  infidelity  on  individuals  and 
nations,  give  us  means  of  observation  now,  far  beyond  all 
preceding  periods  of  timer"  And  if  we  use  these  facts  of 
actual  experience  with  humility,  will  they  not  materially 
aid  us  in  our  cause.'* 


LECT.    XXVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  385 

2.  And  do  not  the  various  methods  of  treating  the 
EVIDENCES  in  furmer  times,  furnish  us  with  lights  for  our 
guidance  in  the  present?  We  trace  the  excellences  and 
defects  of  our  predecessors,  in  order  to  learn  wisdom  our- 
selves. 

The  first  apologists  formed  a  primitive  school  of  writers 
on  the  evidences  of  Christianity.  Justin  Martyr,  Tertul- 
lian,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Arnobius,  Lactanlius,  Augustine, 
poured  out  the  simple  complaints  of  a  persecuted  and  de- 
spised people,  at  the  feet  of  the  reigning  heathen  powers. 
Direct  details  of  proofs  they  gave  not:  they  saw,  they  felt, 
they  exhibited  the  virtue  of  Christianity.  They  had  chiefly 
to  repel  the  unheard-of  calumnies  which  rested  on  the  new 
religion.  Their  aj)ologies  are  personal  vindications  of  a 
deeply-injured  cause. 

The  dark  ages  were  sunk  too  low  in  a  petty  scholastic 
theology,  to  pay  much  regard  to  a  species  of  argument 
whicli  was  not  wanted,  when  the  human  mind  was  strug- 
gling with  other  evils — superstition,  ignorance,  spiritual 
tyranny. 

At  the  reformation,  apologies  were  again  produced,  more 
to  defend  the  protestant  doctrines,  than  to  establish  the 
general  Christian  authority.  The  rise  of  Deism  was  not  im- 
mediate; and  the  demand  for  regular  defences  of  Revelation 
not  directly  made. 

The  school  of  what  we  may  call  the  literary  defenders 
of  Christianity,  arose  with  Plcssis  du  Mornay,"  and  was  fol- 
lowed up  by  Grotius,"  Iluet,''  and  others,  who,  with  too  lit- 
tle regard  perhaps  to  the  inward  blessings  of  Ciirisiianity, 
attempted  to  demonstrate  its  divine  autliority  by  learned 
arguments,  references  to  heathen  authors,  and  a  deduction 
of  inferences  little  level  to  the  understanding,  and  less  ad- 
dressed to  the  hearts  of  man. 

The  theological  class  of  Avriters  on  evidences,  arose  in 
our  own  country  towards  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, from  the  h(jst  of  eminent  divines  and  pious  and  devot- 
ed Christians  which  that  age  produced.      Baxter,  Owen, 

(n)  Born  l»t9.  (o)  Born  1383.  (p)  Born   1630. 

49 


386  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXVI. 

Halyburton,  Turretin  then  wrote,  and  rested  their  cause 
chiefly  on  the  character  of  the  Scriptures,  the  infinite  excel- 
lency and  glory  of  the  matters  revealed,  the  testimony  of 
the  Spirit  to  the  human  heart. 

The  revulsion  of  this  order  of  reasoners  produced  the 
METAPHYSICAL  class  of  the  same  period,  or  a  little  later,  in 
which  far  too  much  was  conceded  to  the  Deist — he  was  met 
on  iiis  own  ground  far  too  courteously,  and  was  refuted  in- 
deed, but  refuted  laboriously  on  the  footing  of  metaphysi- 
cal reasoning.  Chandler,  Jenkins,  Leland,  Stillingfleet, 
and  perhaps  Doddridge,  and  Beattie,  may  be  ranked  in  this 
series. 

The  unsatisfactory  results  of  taking  this  ground,  at  length 
led  to  a  simple  exposition  of  the  facts  of  Christianity  in  the 
HisTOKicAL  school,  in  which  Paley  stands  pre-eminent,  from 
his  skill  in  conducting  his  argument.  Lardner,  Leslie, 
West,  are  of  this  class  in  our  own  country;  as  Michaelis, 
Less,  Bullet,  Bonnet,  Stoch,  are  on  the  continent.  The 
omissions  of  these  apologists  lay  in  an  undervaluing  or  con- 
cealment of  the  internal  evidences — in  a  secular  tone  of 
ratiocination — an  intellectual  effort  to  make  men  Christians, 
without  sufficient  reference  to  the  divine  Saviour  in  his  death 
and  sacrifice,  and  the  divine  sanctifier  in  his  influences  and 
grace. 

The  Christl\n  writers — for  so  I  must  call  them — have 
arisen  of  late  years;  who,  noting  all  that  seemed  good  in 
the  former  schools,  have  been  careful  to  carry  out  Chris- 
tianity into  its  practical  consequences  and  appeal  to  the 
conscience  and  heart.  Pascal  led  the  way  to  this  kind  of 
writings — a  man  who  was  in  advance  of  his  age  in  this,  as 
in  other  points.  Butler  followed  in  his  steps,  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  complete  overthrow  of  infidel  objections, 
by  a  consideration  of  the  ignorance  of  man.  The  present 
Bishop  of  Durham  has  aided,  by  his  exposition  of  the  His- 
tory of  Infidelity.''  Soame  Jenyns  contributed  many 
valuable  thoughts.  But  the  Bishop  of  Chester  "■  is  confes- 
sedly the  leader  in  this  school,  and  has  given  the  first  com- 

(q)  Bishop  Van  Mildcrt's  Boyle  Lectures.        (r)  Bishop  John  Bird  Sumner. 


LECT.  XXVI.]  EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITT,  387 

plete  specimen  of  what  a  knowledge  of  the  real  character 
of  Christianity  can  do  in  the  great  argument/ 

These  various  methods  of  conducting  the  defence  of 
Christianity,  are  of  the  greatest  use  in  guiding  our  judgment 
in  the  present  day. 

3.  Nor  do  the  important  facts  now  ascertained  and 
admitted  on  all  hands,  operate  less  beneficially.  It  is  now 
clearly  understood  that  the  state  of  the  heathen  world  is 
substantially  the  same  at  this  hour,  as  it  was  at  the  time  of 
St.  Paul — that  is,  every  age  has  been  confirming  his  state- 
ments. The  ineflicacy  of  all  means  to  benefit  those  nations,or 
any  other,  except  as  Christianity  is  huml)ly  relied  oji,  has  also 
been  demonstrated.  The  experiment  made  of  the  baneful 
effects  of  infidelity,  on  the  largest  scale,  during  the  period 
of  the  last  fifty  years,  has  been,  alas,  but  too  complete  in  all 
parts  of  the  continent — the  nations  have  been  compelled  to 
unsay  all  their  blasphemies,  and  return  to  some  profession 
of  the  Christian  faith.  The  vanity  and  frivolity  of  the  spec- 
ulative objections  of  Deism  has  been  acknowledged,  and  the 
solid  foundation  of  facts  on  which  Christianity  rests  general- 
ly admitted.'  The  arguments  of  sceptics  are  now  beneath 
the  consideration  of  any  serious  mind.  Infidelity  has,  in- 
deed, been  fairly  driven  oflTits  ground,  and  been  compelled 
to  encamp  within  the  professed  Christian  enclosure;  and  now 
appears  under  the  forms  of  Socinianism  and  Neologism — a 
circumstance  of  some  importance.  It  is  an  acknowledged 
fact,  moreover,  that  the  gospel  is  efllicacious  to  enlighten 
and  console  man,  to  raise  and  animate,  to  pardon  and  bless 
him.     The  success  of  missions  has  established  this." 

4,  A  further  assistance  is  derived  from  the  ciiEARER 
LAWS  OF  REASONING  which  are  now  acknowledged,  and  the 
improvements  universally  made  in  the  estimate  of  evidence. 
This  we  have  more  than  once   noticed.*      But  it  demands 


(s)  Dr.  O.  Gregory,  Mr.  Franks,  Mr.  J.  J.  Gurney  have  done  e.\celleiit  service  in 
ihis  way;  and  ihe  able  and  eloquent  M-  Frassynous,  in  liis  lale  work. 

(t)  Some  French  writers  begin  lo  atTect  to  despise  matters  of  fact,  under  the  term, 
Religion  facticel 

\a)  Take  any  cases — those  in  the  South-Sea  Islands — in  West  Africa — in  India. 
Take  tlie  churches  founded  by  Swartz,  for  example. 

(v)  Led.  i.  vol.  i.  p.  24,  and  elsewhere. 


388  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXVI. 

remark  here,  that  what  lord  Bacon  and  Pascal  insisted  upon 
two  centuries  since,  in  the  prosecution  of  natural  philoso- 
phy, is  now  universally  adojiltcd  in  all  branches  of  knowl- 
edge— that  hypothesis,  conjecture,  opinions,  systems,  are 
of  no  value  against  matters  of  experiment  and  actual  phe- 
nomena— that  we  know  nothing  of  the  causes  of  things — 
that  we  are  to  consider  facts  as  first  principles,  and  to  deduce 
consequences  only  on  the  basis  of  a  wide  induction."'  This 
is  all  that  Christian  apologists  want,  to  establish  the  ruined 
state  of  man,  the  need  of  Revelation,  the  effects  of  Chris- 
tianity upon  the  heart,  the  import  of  its  various  instructions, 
and  the  grace  with  which  it  is  to  be  received.  I  say  nothing 
of  the  external  evidences,  because  they  have  never  been 
much  contested.  The  clearer  notions,  however,  of  the 
nature  of  reasoning  on  the  laws  of  evidence,  leave  the 
sround  unincumbered — we  are  disembarrassed  from  a 
thousand  shackles — the  case  has  a  free  scope  and  fair  con- 
sideration. 

5.  But  all  these  points  would  be  of  less  moment,  if  the 
GKACE  AND  MERCY  OF  GoD  wcrc  not  tumiug  the  minds  of 
men  to  the  best  and  most  effective  statement  of  the  whole 
subject.^  This  is  the  peculiar  advantage  of  the  present  pe- 
riod, that  a  revival  of  genuine  Christianity  has  called  men's 
attention  to  that  simple  method  of  arguing  Christianity, 
which,  without  omitting  human  learning  and  historical  tes- 
timony, chiefly  dwells  on  the  inward  efficacy  and  excellency 
of  the  religion  itself.  This  is  the  course  which  common 
sense,  past  experience,  and  the  honor  of  God,  unite  to  per- 
suade. 

For  nothing  can  be  so  contrary  to  common  sense,  as  to 
leave  out  the  practical  excellence  of  Christianity,  when 
you  are  about  to  invite  men  to  embrace  the  religion — it  is 
to  conceal  the  most  attractive  and  important  means  of  per- 
suasion. And  long  experience  of  the  inefficacy  of  merely 
intellectual  conviction,  ought  to  teach  us  that  man — de- 
praved, fallen,  miserable  man — can  never  be  gained  over 

(w)    M.  [^Jouffroy  has  admirably  shown  ihis  in  his  preface  to  Uugald  Slewari's 
Sketches. 
(«)  Led.  i.  vol.  i. 


LECT.    XXVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  389 

to  salvation,  unless  he  be  directed  from  the  first  to  the  main 
point — a  subjection  of  the  understanding  and  passions  to  the 
divine  will.  And,  indeed,  the  honor  of  God  demands  this 
course.  Are  we  to  conceal  his  Revelation,  and  take  up  such 
parts  of  it  as  we  may  choose.''  Can  we  expect  his  grace  and 
blessing,  if  we  have  not  humility  and  moral  courage  to  avow 
our  need  of  them.^  Will  the  grace  of  the  Divine  Spirit  rest 
upon  our  arguments,  if  we  do  not  place  in  a  prominent  light 
our  constant  dependence  on  his  aid.''  Will  the  blessed  Sa- 
viour own  the  books  which  pass  over  his  great  redemption.^ 

But  the  mercy  of  God  is  leading  men  now  to  that  union 
of  the  historical  and  internal  proofs  which  never  ought  to 
have  been  interrupted.  Men  are  now  selecting  from  the 
various  schools  of  Christian  apologists  what  is  solid  and 
useful,  and  presenting  them  in  a  popular  form  for  the  in- 
struction of  mankind.  The  personal  piety  of  the  primitive 
school, — the  classical  illustrations  of  the  literary, — the  deep 
reverence  for  Scripture  in  the  theological, — the  sound  rea- 
sonings of  the  metaphysical, — and  the  plain  matters  of  fact 
of  the  historical  class  of  writers  on  evidence,  being  judi- 
ciously employed  by  the  truly  Christian  advocate,  the  con- 
sciences of  men  will  be  more  closely  addressed  than  ever, 
the  question  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  will  be  presented  in 
its  native  force,  the  heart  will  be  appealed  to  and  engaged 
in  the  service  of  God,  the  first  entrance  of  sceptical  objec- 
tions will  be  prevented  by  sound  principles  well  fixed  in 
the  mind.  God  will  be  honored  in  the  evidences,  as  much 
as  he  is  in  the  doctrines  and  obedience  of  the  gospel;  and 
indeed  the  foundation  both  of  doctrine  and  obedience  will 
be  laid  in  a  well  settled  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  Chris- 
tion  Ptevelation. 

What  a  prospect,  then,  does  this  present  to  the  eye  which 
would  view  the  whole  mighty  tide  of  evidence!  How  wide 
and  deep  does  it  flow!  How  disembarrassed  from  material 
impediments!  How  bright  are  the  hopes  of  the  future  hap- 
piness of  mankind!  Every  thing  seems  ready  in  the  frame- 
work of  Christianity;  in  the  state  of  the  Christian  argument; 
in  the  condition  of  the  world;  in  the  progress  of  the  accu- 
mulating evidences;  for  the  breaking  forth  of  the  river  of 


390  LECTURES    ON   THE  [lECT.     XXVI. 

life  from  its  present  narrow  channel,  and  its  fertilizing  the 
whole  earth. 

It  is  to  contribute,  in  some  feeble  measure,  to  this  result, 
that  the  author  has  ventured  on  the  hazardous  attempt  which 
he  is  now  bringing  to  a  close.  Thirty  or  forty  years  of  at- 
tention to  the  subject,  have  convinced  him  of  the  impor- 
tance, in  a  day  like  the  present,  of  stating  the  Christian 
evidences,  not  in  a  way  of  intellecual  conviction  merely,  but 
of  practical  impression  upon  the  heart. 

This  he  has  attempted,  anxious  to  open  a  way  for  others 
to  prosecute  the  inquiry  in  its  best  manner — a  manner  which 
unites  the  honor  of  God  and  a  dependance  upon  his  grace, 
with  an  appeal  to  the  understanding  and  conscience  of 
mankind. 


May  the  author  be  permitted  to  address,  in  conclusion, 
I.  The  rulers  and  govkrnors  of  his  beloved  coun- 
try, and  to  urge  upon  ihem  the  duty  of  examining  thor- 
oughly the  question  of  Christianity,  and  acting  courageously 
in  their  public  aod  private  capacity,  as  becomes  sincere  be- 
lievers in  that  Revelation.'' 

Never  did  our  country  occupy  so  exalted  a  position  in  the 
eye  of  mankind,  as  at  the  present  moment:  and  yet  never 
was  there  a  crisis  when  the  faith  of  Christianity  was  more 
essential  to  the  permanence  of  our  prosperity.  The  spirit  of 
universal  in(iuiry,  of  intellectual  eftort,  which  is  now  pushing 
itself  forward  on  all  hands,  can  only  be  safely  directed  by  the 
manly  and  national  avowal  of  our  adherence  to  the  Christian 
faith.y  Revelation  teaches  kings  and  legislators  that  a  secret 
providence  orders  the  affairs  of  nations — that  success  is  in 
a  divine  hand — that  defeat  and  discontent  and  division  and 
anarchy,  are  the  ordinary  inflictions  which  the  Almighty  per- 
mits, for  the  punishment  of  a  wicked  people.  To  espouse 
Christianity,  then,  is  to  give  at  once  a  right  direction  to  a 
spirit  of  investigation,  and  to  ensure  the  blessing  of  God 
upon  our  national  counsels. 

(y)  Bishop  Blomfield. 


LECT.    XXVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF     CHRISTIANITY.  391 

Let  the  legislator  consider  the  picture  of  a  Christian  na- 
tion when  fully  acting  up  to  its  principles;'^  and  let  him  re- 
member that  every  vice  discouraged,  every  national  act  of 
piety  promoted,  every  statute  passed  in  favor  of  moral  and 
religious  order,  is  so  much  gained  to  the  permanent  glory 
of  our  country.  Nor  should  the  most  exalted  personages 
forget  that  Christianity  reveals  such  obligations,  imposes 
such  duties,  calls  for  such  exertions,  that  no  rank  is  exempt 
from  the  full  measure  of  responsibility.  Nay,  the  higher 
the  station,  the  deeper  is  the  accountablcness,  because  the 
more  widely  is  the  mischief  of  a  bad  example  diffused,  and 
the  more  numerous  the  victims  seduced  into  sin  and  irre- 
ligion. 

And  what  can  be  the  cement  of  national  virtue,  subjec- 
tion to  the  laws,  mutual  love,  activity  in  every  generous  en- 
terprise, but  Christianity;  which  implanting  the  one  new 
and  grand  principle  of  love  to  God,  and  benevolence  to 
man,  contains  in  itself  the  seeds  of  all  improvement,  the 
chain  of  universal  union  and  peace,  the  spring  of  every 
mild  and  generous  disposition.''  Yes,  Christianity  is  the 
grand  remedy  for  the  evilsof  mankind,  whether  in  their  so- 
cial or  personal  capacity.  It  precisely  checks  and  goes  to 
extinguish  that  principal  of  debased  selfishness,  which  is  the 
ruin  of  states,  and  to  cherish  that  true  public  spirit  which  is 
the  parent  of  all  virtuous  effort;  whilst  it  unites  man  with 
God,  elevates  him  to  the  highest  efforts  of  which  his  nature 
is  capable,  and  prepares  him  for  eternity. 

But  let  the  great  remember,  further,  that  it  is  not  only 
in  their  official  capacities  that  they  must  vindicate  the 
cause  of  Christianity,  but  in  their  domestic  and  private  con- 
duct. If  Revelation  is  to  govern  our  population,  it  will  be 
very  much  by  means  of  the  upright,  pure,  and  consistent 
example  proposed  by  those  of  distinction  and  influence  to 
the  mass  of  the  nation.  The  personal  virtue,  the  marked 
attention  to  religious  duties,  the  constant  observation  of  the 
Lord's  day,  the  honor  put  upon  the  name  of  the  Almighty, 
upon  his  word  and  ministers;  the  right  use  of  influence,  the 

(z)  Lecture  xviii,  on  the  Tendency  of  Christianity. 


392  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.  XXVI. 

conscientious  disposal  of  patronage;  the  employment  of 
wealth  to  the  noblest  purposes;  the  education  and  instruc- 
tion of  the  poor;  these  are  amongst  the  duties  which  Chris- 
tianity imposes  upon  the  great  and  honorable.  To  lead  for- 
ward their  countrymen  in  designs  of  benevolence,  to  mar- 
shal them  in  purposes  of  charity,  in  the  diffusion  of  the 
Scripture  over  the  world,  and  in  the  dissemination  of  mis- 
sions; these  are  becoming  acts  of  the  Christian  noble  and 
statesman. 

And  for  all  these  ends,  let  them  imbibe  the  peculiar  grace 
and  influence  of  the  Christianity  which  they  profess.  Let 
them  not  be  Christians  by  halves.  The  fallen  heart  of  man, 
the  power  of  the  cross  of  the  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  the  ope- 
rations of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  renewing  the  whole  soul,  the  life 
of  faith  and  love,  the  necessity  of  communion  with  God,  sep- 
aration from  the  vanities  of  the  world  and  devout  prepara- 
tion for  eternity;  these  are  the  peculiarities  of  Christianity, 
from  which  alone,  as  from  a  root  fixed  in  a  fertile  soil,  can  the 
abundant  fruits  of  a  Christian  life  be  produced. 

Christianity  is  every  thing  or  nothing.  If  it  be  true,  it  is 
true  in  all  its  parts,  in  all  its  discoveries,  in  all  its  conse- 
quences. And  none  are  more  solemnly  called  on  to  imbibe 
its  very  inmost  principles,  than  those  who,  from  their  ele- 
vated rank  and  the  flatteries  and  follies  which  usually  sur- 
round them,  are  most  exposed  to  a  worldly  and  inefficient 
profession  of  that  holy  faith. 

II.  But  may  the  author  venture  to  turn  himself  to  his  rev- 
erend buetukkn  and  fathers  in  the  ministry  of  Christ's 
CHURCH  of  every  confession,  but  especially  of  his  own  be- 
loved Protestant  apostolical  English  church. 

On  them  will  rest,  after  all,  the  great  burden  of  instruct- 
ing mankind  and  carrying  out  the  evidences  of  Christianity 
into  their  holy  efficacy  upon  the  heart  and  life.  They  are 
the  appointed  stewards,  messengers,  ambassadors  of  the  King 
of  kings.  They  represent  their  Saviour  in  the  world;  they 
preach  his  doctrines;  they  administer  his  sacraments;  they 
apply  his  promises;  they  give  warning  of  the  solemn  conse- 
quences of  disobedience.  Christianity  is  interpreted  by  their 
life,   propagated  by  their   labors,  estimated  by  their  spirit. 


LECT.    XXVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  393 

They  create  the  practical  standard,  the  tone,  the  general 
notion  of  what  religion  demands  of  man.  And  what  but 
the  decline  from  the  purity  of  the  gospel,  in  doctrine  and 
practice,  amongst  us,  has  been  the  occasion  of  the  lamenta- 
ble state  of  things  in  Christendom?  Revered  brethren,  I 
take  a  full  share  myself  in  this  guilt.  It  is  the  ministry 
secularized,  dishonored,  sunk  down  into  tame  and  worldly 
generalities,  which  has  opened  the  flood-gates  of  infidelity 
upon  Europe.  Men  have  known  little  of  real,  vital.  Scrip- 
tural Christianity.  They  have  taken  up  their  opinions  from 
the  defective,  and  erroneous,  though  perhaps  fashionable, 
doctrines  of  the  day;  and  from  the  vain,  speculative,  indul- 
geqt,  worldly  lives  of  the  ministers  of  Christianity.  Thank 
God  for  that  renewed  sense  of  duty  and  responsibility  which 
is  visiting  Europe,  and  which  appears  in  our  return  to  the 
pure  truth  of  the  Bible  in  our  doctrines  and  lives,  in  our 
zeal  for  propagating  the  gospel  abroad,  and  in  our  active 
and  humble  discharge  of  the  pastoral  duties  at  home. 

Let  me  be  allowed  to  offer  two  or  three  suggestions. 
We  are  ever  in  danger  of  mistaking  talent,  effort,  exertion, 
for  evangelical  doctrine  and  the  mighty  operations  of  grace; 
we  are  in  danger  of  leaning  to  literary  taste,  acuteness  of 
intellect,  secular  eloquence,  a  spirit  of  partizanship,  the  dis- 
covery and  undue  elevation  of  novelties.  Let  a  humble, 
holy,  pure  exhibition  of  the  gospel  be  our  constant  aim. 
The  full,  simple,  unaffected  preaching  of  Christ  crucified, 
in  all  the  amplitude  of  its  doctrines,  and  in  all  the 
sweetness  and  loveliness  of  its  practical  fruits — this  is 
Christianity.  The  Son  and  Spirit  of  God  are  the  pe- 
culiarities of  Revelation,  and  they  must  be  the  peculiari- 
ties of  our  ministry;  and  this  in  the  same  spirit  of  humility, 
humble  dependence  upon  God  for  a  blessing,  and  ascription 
of  every  thing  to  him,  which  we  see  in  the  inspired  epistles. 
In  short,  the  Bible  expounded  and  applied;  Revelation  in 
its  own  words  and  its  native  simplicity;  truth  as  it  came 
down  from  the  Father  of  lights,  and  is  consigned  in  the 
books  we  have  been  defending;  the  holy  Scriptures  ex- 
pounded to  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Spirit  by  wliom  they 
were  indited — this  is  the  Christian  ministry.  What  has 
50 


394  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXVI. 

human  reasoning  ever  done?  How  powerless  is  reason  in 
her  speculations  even  in  matters  relating  to  this  world! 
What  has  ever  been  discovered  or  effected  by  hypothesis 
and  theory?  No  inventions  in  medicine,  or  any  other  prac- 
tical science,  have  been  the  result  of  abstract  notions  and 
reasonings.  Modest  and  diligent  observation  has  alone 
arranged  the  great  and  solid  acquisitions  of  science.  Chris- 
tianity, once  acknowledged  as  divine,  is  our  grand  experi- 
ment; from  it  we  proceed  as  from  first  principles:  thence 
we  derive  our  elements  of  reasoning,  our  means  of  instruc- 
tion, our  grounds  of  hope,  our  confidence  of  strength  and 
success.  For  the  minister  to  keep  close  to  the  Bible,  is  the 
same  as  for  the  philosopher  to  keep  close  to  nature,  and  the 
statesman  to  the  records  of  experience. 

But  with  this  let  us  join  all  that  expansive  chakity 
which,  in  this  imperfect  world,  is  so  essential  to  any  united 
efforts  for  the  glory  of  our  Saviour.  Truth  is  not  fully, 
and  in  all  its  parts,  revealed;  the  degree  of  divine  illumina- 
tion differs  in  each  Christian  minister;  the  measures  of  at- 
tainment, both  as  to  knowledge  and  holiness,  are  widely 
and  almost  indefinitely  varied;  the  force  of  reasoning  from 
premises,  and  the  faculty  of  following  out  consequences 
from  them,  e.xist  in  very  distinct  degrees;  the  calmness 
and  deliberation  of  the  mind,  in  coming  to  conclusions,  are 
widely  different;  whilst  Satan's  great  aim  is  to  divide  and 
estrange  Christians  from  each  other.  What  causes  are 
these  for  forbearance!  How  large  a  part  of  our  state  of 
probation  here  consists  in  bearing  with  each  other,  in  for- 
giving, counselling,  aiding,  strengthening  one  the  other! 
In  all  main  points  we  agree.  The  simplicity  of  the  leading 
truths  of  Scripture,  received  by  the  teaching  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  expounded  by  a  well-regulated  conscience,  create 
a  substantial  unity  in  all  true  Christians.  Dwell  on  these 
capital  points.  Let  others  have  no  more  than  tiieir  propor- 
tionate weight.  Follow  each  your  own  best  convictions;  but 
do  not  agitate  and  rend  the  church.  Keep  closely  together. 
Let  us  spend  our  strength  on  better  matters  than  controversy. 
Let  us  exhibit  to  our  people  an  united  front;  let  us  infuse 
an  harmonious  spirit;  let  >js  follow  the  evidences  of  our 
faith,  as  they  are  gathered  from  books,  with   the  evidences 


LECT.  XXVI.]  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRlSTIANIXY.  395 

which  are  apparent  in  the  temper  and  deducible  from  a 
Christian  conduct.  Let  each  of  us  fill  up,  in  the  best  man- 
ner we  are  able,  our  several  platforms  of  discipline,  in  a 
spirit  of  consistency,  indeed,  but  of  charily;  and  leave  the 
hope  of  agreeing  formally  on  all  points,  till  we  reach  the 
World  of  full  revelation  and  unclouded  light  and  glory. 

To  the  simple  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  the  loveliness 
of  real  charity,  let  us  add  diligence  and  compassion  in 
THE  pastoral  DUTIES,  and  we  shall  discharge  our  main 
obligations  as  ministers  of  religion.  Where  should  the 
shepherd  be  but  with  his  flock?  What  avail  public  instruc- 
tions, if  the  detail  be  not  filled  up  in  private.''  Where  is 
the  Christianity  we  profess,  if  it  be  exhausted  in  a  few  for- 
mal and  brief  exhibitions,  and  do  not  descend  into  the 
daily  life.^  How  little  do  the  body  of  our  people  under- 
stand of  our  elaborate  compositions,  unless,  by  catechetical 
instructions,  by  private  expositions,  by  application  of  truth 
to  the  individual  conscience,  we  make  them  intelligible? 
What  has  a  minister  of  religion  to  do  with  literary  trifling, 
with  worldly  visits,  with  light  reading,  with  frivolous  avoca- 
tions, which  unfit  him  for  serious  study,  render  the  Bible 
distasteful,  and  indispose  him  for  the  private  care  of  souls. 
Let  us  only  so  carry  our  Christianity  into  practice,  as  to  add 
these  pastoral  duties  to  our  other  engagements  as  ministers, 
and  we  may  hope  for  a  large  measure  of  the  divine  grace 
to  descend  upon  us. 

May  I  suggest  also  the  expediency  of  paying  more  re- 
gard   THAN     HAS    BEEN    USUALLY    DONE     TO    THE     SUBJECT    OF 

THE  EVIDENCES,  which  wc  havc  been  discussing  in  this 
work?  Can  we  hope  to  preserve  our  people  in  the  faith, 
unless  we  teach  them  the  grounds  of  that  faith?  Can  we 
expect  them  to  pass  unhurt  througli  the  hosts  of  enemies,  if 
we  give  them  no  shield  to  protect  their  breasts?  Why  do 
our  population  so  soon  fall  away  from  Christianity;  but  be- 
cause conscience  was  never  fiirly  informed  of  the  grounds 
of  belief?  Let  us,  then,  instruct  them  in  the  foundations  of 
Christianity;  and  let  us  unite,  in  doing  so,  the  internal  with 
the  external  evidences;  let  us  make  the  historical  the  intro- 
duction to  the  inward  proofs.  Thus  may  we  hope  tiiat  our 
youth,  well-established  in  their  faith,  tenderly  watched  over 


39G  LECTURES    ON    THE  [lECT.    XXVI. 

by  their  pastors,  inflamed  with  a  spirit  of  charity,  and  grow- 
ing more  and  more  in  the  knowledge  and  obedience  of  the 
peculiarities  of  Revel.ition,  will  be  a  seed  to  serve  our 
God,  and  hand  down  to  the  ne.\t  age  the  truth  which  we 
deliver  to  them  in  this. 

III.      To    THE      HUMBLE    AND      TEACHABLE,    AND    ESPECIALLY 

THE  YOUNG  amongst  his  readers,  let  the  author  be,  finally, 
allowed  to  address  himself. 

I  have  in  these  Lectures  been  endeavoring  to  urge  on  you 
the  importance  of  cordially  obeying  the  Christian  Revelation. 
Let  me  affectionately  intreat  you  to  enter  into  the  great  sub- 
ject. Let  it  penetrate  your  soul.  Let  its  authority  entrench 
itself  in  your  understanding,  and  its  holy  and  elevated  truths 
in  your  inmost  conscience  and  heart.  Turn  a  deaf  ear  to 
the  voice  of  scorn,  and  the  temptations  of  sensuality. 
Remember,  nothing  is  more  easy  than  to  inject  doubts  into 
the  fallen  heart  of  man,  which  it  may  take  much  argument 
to  eradicate;  just  as  it  is  easy  to  kindle,  by  a  single  spark,  a 
conflagration,  which  it  may  take  infinite  labor  to  extinguish, 
and  much  time  and  expense  to  repair.  My  aim  has  been 
to  furnish  you  with  a  protection  against  the  mazes  and  arti- 
fices of  infidels,  by  exposing  the  miserable  sophistry  of 
their  reasoning,  and  the  awful  vices  of  their  conduct.  Keep 
close,  then,  to  the  Christian  faith.  Refresh  your  memory, 
from  time  to  time,  with  a  review  of  its  chief  evidences.  If 
any  violent  temptation  assault  you,  meet  the  shock  by  fall- 
ing back,  first  on  the  practical  holiness  of  Christianity,  and 
then  on  the  general  mass  of  proofs  of  every  kind,  by  which 
your  faith  is  sustained.  Act  as  one  who  was  told  that  his 
house  was  falling;  that  the  arches  on  which  it  was  reared 
were  giving  way;  and  that  his  continuance  in  it  was  perilous: 
ask,  'Who  is  it  tells  me  this;  what  grounds  have  I  for  cred- 
iting his  information;  how  does  his  own  house  stand;  what 
are  his  own  foundations?'  If  you  find  every  thing  about 
him  in  ruins;  you  need  not  much  perplex  3ourself  with 
alarms  which  proceed  from  folly  or  ignorance.  However, 
you  may  examine  once  again.  Descend  to  the  basements 
of  your  abode;  search  if  there  are  any  marks  of  decay. 
You  are  surprised  at  the  strength  of  the  arches;  you  observe 
no  giving  way,  no  one  sign  of  weakness:  rather,  every  part 


LECT.    XXVI.]        EVIDENCES    OP    CHRISTIANITY.  397 

seems  to  have  settled  by  time  into  a  firmer  and  more  com- 
pact state.  Resume,  tlien,^our  tranquillity,  and  employ  the 
blessing  of  a  secure  abode  to  its  proper  uses.  Thus  will 
every  renewed  examination  confirm  your  faith  in  the  Chris- 
tian Revelation. 

But  remember  that,  in  order  to  this,  you  must  continue  in 
a  practicable  and  heartfelt  obedience  to  the  blessed  Saviour, 
who  is  the  centre  of  divine  truth;  in  whose  doctrine,  exam- 
ple, grace,  all  Christianity  is  comprised:  and  who  with  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  the  divine  agent  in  redemption.  So  will 
you  have  the  witness  in  yourself.  If  you  use  Revelation, 
the  evidence  will  break  in  upon  your  mind  more  and  more; 
if  you  are  not  using  it,  nothing  can  render  it  clear:  objec- 
tions will  arise,  as  noxious  vapors,  from  the  stagnant  mass 
of  notions  and  prejudices  in  your  mind.  God  keeps  things 
in  his  own  hand.  Truth,  to  be  strongly  seized,  and  fully 
understood,  must  be  obeyed,  loved,  carried  out  into  practice. 

And  be  assured,  that  the  highest  effort  of  the  human 
intellect,  is  to  bow  to  the  divine;  the  noblest  exercise  of  the 
human  powers,  is  to  glorify  God,  and  aspire  after  his  favor; 
the  truest  liberty  of  man  is  a  subjection  to  his  all-perfect 
Creator  and  Lord;  the  only  genuine  source  of  human  hap- 
piness, is  the    acquiescence  of  our  will  in    the  will  of  God. 

All  other  advice  is  poison;  all  other  means  of  elevation 
or  happiness,  are  the  swellings  of  disease,  and  the  perverse 
dictates  of  a  rebellious  nature. 

Man's  probation  consists  in  this  one  point;  Will  he  hum- 
ble his  reason  before  God's  all-comprehending  knowledge, 
and  his  heart  and  affections  before  God's  all  holy  and  per- 
fect commands? 

Christianity  is  the  highest  reason;  the  purest  morals;  the 
only  sound  philosophy;  the  truest  happiness  of  man. 

All  the  discoveries  in  science  illustrate  the  divine  glory 
in  creation;  as  all  the  researches  of  history,  and  all  the  tes- 
timony of  experience,  display  the  divine  grace  in  Revela- 
tion. Each  new  discovery  adds  something  to  the  impres- 
sion, though  little  to  the  obligation  under  which  we  lie  to 
obey  and  love  God;  for  this  obligation  is  so  deep — rests  on 
so  firm  a  foundation — extends  to  so  many  points,  and  con- 


398  EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  [lECT.  XXVI. 

verges  into  so  bright  and  luminous  a  centre,  as  to  be  little 
aft'ected  by  a  single  argument,  more  or  less  clearly  stated, 
or  adequately  perceived. 

Soon  will  truth  shine  out  without  a  cloud;  soon  will  the 
folly  of  unbelief,  and  the  wisdom  of  faith,  be  seen  in  other 
proportions  than  at  present;  soon  will  the  moral  obligation 
of  obedience  to  such  a  Revelation  as  Christianity,  and  the 
unutterable  guilt  of  rejecting  it,  appear  in  their  just  charac- 
ters; soon  will  all  the  passing  objections  and  cavils  of  men 
be  dispersed  as  the  early  dew;  soon  will  the  day  of  proba- 
tion be  terminated  for  ever;  this  world,  and  all  its  occupa- 
tions fade  away;  and  an  end  be  imposed  on  the  present 
scene  of  things.  Yes,  the  day  of  the  Lord  will  come  as  a 
thief  in  the  night;  in  the  which  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with 
a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat;  the 
earth,  also,  and  the  works  that  are  therein,  shall  be  burned  up.^ 

Then    shall  the  righteous  shine    forth  as  the   sun 

IN    THK    KINGDOM    OF    THEIR    FATHER.'' 

It  is  with  the  purpose  of  preparing  your  inquiring  minds 
for  this  sublime  and  awful  consummation,  that  I  have 
addressed  you  in  these  Lectures;  which,  undertaken  with 
great  apprehension  and  self-distrust,  I  would  desire  to  lay, 
as  an  offering,  on  the  altar  of  the  Christian  faith,  humbly 
beseeching  the  God  of  all  mercy  to  pardon  the  defects  of 
the  writer,  and  to  bless  and  prosper  what  there  is  of  truth 
in  his  statements  and  representations;  and  imploring  that 
both  author  and  readers  may  find  mercy  of  the  Lord  in  that 

DAY.'' 

And  now,  after  the  example  of  my  most  revered  prede- 
cessors in  this  argument,  I  would  desire  to  conclude  this 
my  attempt,  not  in  words  merely,  but  from  the  sentiment  of 
my  heart,  with  that  ascription  of  praise  which  the  illuminat- 
ing Spirit  has  himself  left  for  our  use: — JVow  unto  him  that  is 
able  to  keep  you  from  falling,  and  to  present  youfndtlcss  before 
the  presence  of  his  glory  ivith  exceeding  joy,  to  the  only  icise  God 
our  Saviour,  be  glory  and  majestr/,  dominion  and  power,  both  now 
and  ever.     Amen.'^ 

(a)  2  Pel.  iii.  10—12.     (b)  Matt.  xili.  43.    (c)  2  Tim.  i    18.     (d)  Jude  i.  25. 


INDEX. 


^</ap<arton  of  Christianity  to  man.     See  Suitablew.ss. 

Address  to  the  docile  and  sincere  student,  i.  173.  Rulers  and  governors,  ii.  390. 
Ministers  of  Christ's  church,  392.     The  humble  and  teachable,  39G. 

Advantages,  which  each  individual  has  respectively  enjoyed  in  a  Christian  land,  un- 
speakably augment  the  obligation  to  receive  Christianity,  ii.  353. 

Alaric,  soldiers  under,  a  wonderful  example  of  the  power  of  Christianity  over  the 
fierce  passions  of  man,  i.  27C. 

Apocryphal  books  of  Old  Testament,  i.  note,  145. 

Apocnjphal  hooks  of  New  Testament  are  destitute  of  the  external  proofs  of  authentic- 
ity which  belong  to  the  Canonical  books,  i.  112. 

Apostles,  the,  of  our  Lord,  were  twelve  separate  witnesses  to  the  gospel  facts,  i.  139; 
had  a  full  knowledge  of  the  things  they  attested,  139;  were  competent  judges  of  the 
facts  to  which  they  bore  testimony,  139;  were  of  transparent  integri*ty  of  character, 
IW;  men  of  sound  minds,  and  by  no  means  credulous,  141;  relate  events  at  the 
spot  where  they  occurred  and  before  the  multitudes  who  witnessed  them,  142} 
their  subsequent  lives  were  distinguished  by  unparalleled  benevolence  and  holiness, 
142;  and  they  had  nothing  to  expect  for  their  testimony  but  temporal  calamities  and 
death,  142.     Gifts  bestowed  upon  them  by  our  Lord,  302. 

Apparent  contradictions  in  man,  accounted  for  by  the  Christian  Revelation,  ii.  37, 

Authenticity  of  Kritings  AeHned,  note,  i.  83;  discovered  by  their  contents,  92. 

Authenticity  of  the  Old  Testament,  connected  with  that  of  the  New,  i.  81,  143. 

Authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  stands  on  the  authority  of  apostle 
Paul,  i.  82;  Illustrated  by  that  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  81;  Dooms-day 
Book,  84;  Institutes  of  Justinian,  84;  Ancient  Classics,  85;  Manifest  from  their 
contents,  93;  and,  by  analogy,  from  the  conduct  of  men  respecting  legal  deeds,  95. 
The  proofs  of,  which  we  possess,  are  irradiations  of  the  divine  glory,  96;  and  de- 
mand our  sincere  confidence,  97.  They  consist  of  the  testimony  of  witnesses,  in 
succession,  from  the  present  day  up  to  the  time  of  the  apostles,  99;  a  specimen 
of  their  testimony,  104;  of  the  progressive  settlement  of  the  sacred  canon,  106;  the 
admissions  of  Heathen  and  Jewish  adversaries,  108;  the  number  and  antiquity  of 
our  manuscripts,  110;  the  style  and  manner  of  the  books,  113;  unexpected  confir- 
mations, 116. 

.BaZ»(//on,  destruction  of,  i.  228. 

Bacon's,  lord,  remark  on  the  office  of  reason,  ii.  294;  on  interpretation  of  Scriptures, 

note,  332. 
Bemficial  effects  of  Christianity.    See  Effects  of  Christianiiij. 
Benevolence  and  compassion  of  Jesus  Christ,  ii.  112. 
Benevolence,  the  cement  of  national  virtue,  ii.  391. 
Boyle,  the  Honorable  Robert,  the  character  and  conduct  of,  ii.  252. 


400  INDEX. 

Canaariites,  the  history  of,  shows  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy  concerning  them,  1.  230. 

Candid  and  sincere  mind,  all  is  light  in  Christianity  to  ihe.  i.  344. 

Canon  of  Scripture,  the  proo;ressive  settleinfinl  of,  i.  102. 

Celsus,  the  Heathen  philosopher,  admits  the  genuineness  of  the  New  Testament, 

i.  108. 
Christ  must  be  received  into  the  heart,  as  well  as  the  miracles  he  wrought  be  be- 
lieved, i.  176.  The  character  and  conduct  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  ii.  99;  his  claims, 
100.  His  conduct  as  Mediator,  102;  the  !>on  of  God,  and  the  Saviour  of 
the  world,  103;  a  teacher  and  revealer  of  the  will  of  God,  as  to  his  maimer,  digni- 
fied and  forcible,  104;  yet  mild  and  attractive,  105;  as  to  his  matter,  grand,  and 
yet  intelligible,  106;  earnest,  and  yet  wise,  106;  in  a  state  of  humiliation,  108;  prom- 
ising to  his  disciples  a  heavenly  reward,  109.  As  a  private  individual,  an 
example  of  human  virtue,  110;  piety  and  devotion  to  his  heavc-nly  Father,  111;  be- 
nevolence and  compassion  towards  man,  112;  meekness  and  lowliness  of  spirit,  113; 
superiority  to  the  world,  114;  strict  temperance,  and  command  of  the  inferior  ap- 
petites, 114;  fortitude  and  constancy,  115;  prudence  and  discretion,  115;  all  these 
unallo\ed  with  the  kindred  failings,  116;  opposite  graces  in  equal  proportion,  116; 
carried  to  the  utmost  height,  and  continued  in  one  even  tenor,  117;  with  a  peculiar 
harmony,  117.  As  the  founder  of  the  Christian  religion,  118;  his  suitableness 
to  the  necessities  of  man,  118;  the  surprising  novelty  and  sublimity  of  his  deport- 
ment, 119;  the  different  parts  of  his  character  correspond  with  his  undertaking,  120; 
the  impression  and  effect  of  his  whole  public  character,  121;  the  manner  in  which 
it  is  given  by  the  evangelists,  122.  The  argument  in  favor  of  Christianity,  springs 
from  a  fair  presumption  upon  the  first  statement  of  the  case,  124;  rises  higher  when 
contrasted  with  every  pretension,  125;  becomes  a  moral  demonstration,  127;  and 
bears  away  the  heart  of  every  serious  inquirer,  129. 
Christian,  the  true,  feels  the  necessity  of  Revelation,  i.  75,  77. 

Christians  should  take  care  that  the  good  effects  of  Christianity  be  the  result  of 
religious  principles  in  themselves,  i.  286;  must  not  slop  short  in  its  temporal  benefits, 
286;  and  will  find  its  advantages  in  proportion  to  the  development  of  its  strength 
and  energ}',  288.  Young  Christians  should  continue  in  the  things  they  have  been 
assured  of,  315. 
Christian  nations,  the  state  of,  shows  that  Revelation  was  necessary,  i.  73;  viewed 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  73;  at  any  period,  74;  at  the  present  day,  74.  The  ad- 
vantages they  possess,  78. 
Christian  Revelation  speaks  a  decisive  language,  ii.  32;  unfolds  all  the  mysteries  of 
man's  condition,  35;  accounts  for  the  apparent  contradictions  of  his  state,  37;  and 
addresses  him  on  this  footing,  38.  Provides  also  a  remedy  for  all  his  wants,  39; 
and  is  calculated  for  universal  diffusion,  44. 
C/irish'an/«!/ courts  inquiry;  i. '25;  is  not  a  speculation,  42;  requires  her  students  to 
be  of  a  meek  and  docile  disposition,  45.  The  only  religion  set  up  and  established 
by  miracles,  171.  EfTccts  of,  269.  Admission  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures 
essential  to  the  right  reception  of  Christianity,  330.  Connives  at  no  one  vice,  ii. 
47.  The  sum  of,  Jesus  Christ,  130;  supposed  to  be  universal,  156.  What  it  is,  and 
what  it  is  not,  159.  Directions  for  making  a  personal  trial  of  it,  190.  Is  so  excel- 
lent in  itself  that  the  slightest  external  evidence  is  sufficient  to  oblige  men  to  obey 
it,  ii.  ^43. 
Clemeni,  Bishop  of  Rome,  A.  D.  91  to  110,  testimony  of,  to   the  authenticitij  of  books 

of  New  Testament,  i.  104;  to  the  inspiration,  313. 
Coins,  ancient,  see  Medals. 

Common  sense,  it  is  an  act  of,  to  follow  the  proofs  of  Christianity,  i.  3t2.  Common 
sense  and  the  ordinary  laws  of  humein  language  assist  us  to  the  right  method  of  in- 
terpretation, ii.  316. 


INDEX. 


401 


Compass,  the  Bible  is  llie  Christian's,  i.  Hd. 

Confirmations  to  the  authenticity  of  the  New  Testament  unexpected,  i.  IIG.  A  re- 
markable fragment  discovered  in  17+0,  118.     Medals  and  coins,  120. 

Consolatonj,  tlie  Christian  doctrines  are,  ii.  G9. 

Constant'uie's  the  Emperor,  attachment  to  sacred  Scriptures,  i.  107. 

Contradictions  of  Infidelity  and  Paganism,  ii.  G5. 

Converts.  Men  of  the  finest  talents  convinced  by  the  Christian  history,  i.  134.  The 
moral  and  religious  change  wrought  in  the  Christian,  23G.  Included  persons  of  all 
ranks,  257. 

Comiction  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  is  strengthened  the  more  practically  its  propa- 
gation is  considered,  i.  2G7. 

Credibility  of  the  Old  Testament,!.  144. 

Credibility  of  the  New  Testament  defined,  i.  121;  illustrated,  125;  established  by  the 
authenticity  of  the  books,  12G;  by  the  extraordinary  prominence  and  small  number 
of  the  principal  facts,  12G;  by  the  positive  and  various  testimonies  adduced,  127; 
by  the  testimony  of  the  governors  of  Roman  provinces,  129;  Heathen  writers,  129; 
Jewish  historians,  131;  by  the  conviction  produced  in  the  minds  of  men  of  the  finest 
talents,  who,  examining  the  pretensions  of  Christianity,  met  its  claims  at  first  with 
prejudice  and  hatred,  134;  by  silence  of  Mahomet,  135;  by  existing  rites  and 
usages,  which  sprang  out  of  the  facts  of  Christianity,  135;  by  ancient  and  authentic 
monuments,  coins,  and  medals,  13G;  by  the  character  and  circumstances  of  the  sa- 
cred writers  themselves,  1-37;  fifteen  witnesses,  139;  possessing  a  full  knowledge  of 
the  things  they  attested,  139;  and  of  which  they  were  competent  judges,  139;  being 
persons  of  the  strictest  integrity,  140;  of  sound  minds,  and  by  no  means  credulous, 
141;  relating  events  at  the  spot  where  they  occurred,  and  before  the  multitudes 
■who  witnessed  them,  142;  their  subsequent  lives  marked  by  unparalleled  benevo- 
lence and  holiness,  142;  while  they  had  nothing  to  expect  for  their  testimony  but 
temporal  calamities  and  death,  142;  no  one  came  forward  to  complain  of  an  im- 
position, l-i3;  if  our  accounts  be  false,  where  is  the  true  one,  143. 

Depravity  of  the  human  heart  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the   full   rccei)tion  of  Chris- 
tianity, i.  313. 
Direction,  the,  which  Christianity  takes,  ii.  134. 

Directions  for  entering  on  a  personal  trial  of  Christianity  as  a  matter  of  experience, 
ii.   187;  study  Christianity  in  the  Bible  itself,  190;  trace  out  in  your  heart   and 
character  the  truth  of  the  particular  statements  of  the  Bible,  as  to  the  condition  of 
man  and  his  guilt  before  God,  194;  pray  fervently  for  divine  grace,  198;  use  the 
means  which  God  has  promised  to  bless,  200;  keep  your  eye  fixed  on  the  great 
object  which  Christianity  reveals,  201;  observe  how  all  the  parts  of  it  constitute  a 
whole,  and  meet  all  the  necessities  of  your  case,  203. 
Divi.NE  AUTHORITY  of  Christianity  established  by  miracles,  i.  150;  prophecy,  177, 
200;  its  propagation,  243;  preservation,  2G1;  beneficial  effects,  2G9;  adaptation,  ii. 
25;  doctrines,  52;  morals,  7G;  example  of  Christ,  101;  and  tendency,  131. 
Docile  hearers ,  address  to,  ii.  129,395. 
Docility  necessary  in  a  student  of  Christianity,  i.  45,  196,  241;  essential  to  a  sound 

interpretation  of  Scripture,  ii.  312,  336,  338. 
Doctrines  of  Christmnity,  de^\\\\\on  of,  ii.  52;  enumeration  of  the  chief  doctrines, 
53;  their  divine  excellency  pointed  out,  53;  they  all  emanate  from  the  character 
of  God,  53;  possess  simplicity,  CI;  surpassing  grandeur  and  sublimity,  G2;  and  an 
harmony  which  stamps  their  divine  authority,  63;  meet  all  the  necessities  of  man, 
66;  and  yet  promote  the  ends  of  God's  moral  government,  67;  are  deeply  humili- 
ating, 68;  and  yet  sources  of  consolation,  69;  they  are  the  result  of  the  great  de- 
sign of  Almighty  God,  70;  augment  the  inward  evidence  of  Christianity,  74;  and 
demand  of  the  true  Christian,  love  and  gratitude  to  God,  74. 
51 


402  INDEX. 

Doddridge  and  Rousseau,  contrasted,  ii.  257. 

Effects  of  Christianity  a  proof  of  its  divine  authority,  i.  2G9.  Christianity  implants 
good  principles,  270;  arouses  conscience,  270;  discourag-es  vices,  and  estaSlishes 
contrary  virtues,  270;  mitigates  insatiable  ardor  after  worldly  possessions,  270;  im- 
plants enlarged  benevolence,  271;  expels  indolence,  271;  and  elevates  the  whole 
character  of  man,  271.  Christianity  banishes  an  immense  mass  of  evils;  idolatry, 
271;  murder,  272;  exposing  of  infants,  272;  divorce  and  polygamy.  272;  the  deg- 
radation of  tiie  female  sex,  273;  the  cruelties  of  domestic  slavery,  273;  private  assas- 
sination, 274;  and  a  thousand  similar  evils,  275.  Christianity  mitigates  many  other 
evils — such  as  the  horrors  of  war,  275;  the  spirit  of  faction  and  party,  animosities 
in  slates,  277;  venality  and  corruption,  278;  offences  against  temperance  and  chas- 
tity, 278;  and  raises  the  standard  of  public  opinion  as  to  morals  and  religion,  278. 
Christianity  has  conferred,  and  is  conferring,  numerous  substantial  benefits  on  in- 
dividuals and  nations;  it  has  elevated  the  female  sex,  279;  blessed  the  lower  orders 
of  society,  279;  instituted  charitable  designs  for  the  relief  of  human  wretchedness, 
280;  encircled  age  with  reverence,  281;  given  man  a  day  of  rest,  281;  has  infused 
into  Christian  legislators  and  princes  the  temper  of  equity  and  mercy,  281;  confer- 
red the  blessing  of  equal  distributive  justice,  282;  extends  its  salutary  influence  to 
distant  provinces,  282;  and  civilizes  stales,  283. 

Effects,  the  ultimate,  which  Christianity  will  produce  when  all  obstacles  are  removed, 
ii,  147. 

Egyptians,  present  state  of,  confirms  ancient  prophecies,  i.  230. 

Eusplnus,  quotation  from,  respecting  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  i.  252. 

Evidences  of  Christianity,  not  to  be  continually  dwelt  upon,  i.  31;  but  occasionally, 
32;  and  not  in  a  way  of  testimony  merely,  32;  but  in  a  practical  manner,  33;  as  in 
the  (  arly  centuries,  leading  men  on  to  the  inward  excellencies  of  the  religion  itself, 
33.  They  demand  aiieniion  at  the  present  time  on  account  of  the  young,  3^1;  the 
lapse  of  time  since  Christianity  took  its  rise,  35;  the  decayed  state  of  piety,  35;  a 
spurious  philosophy  spread  far  and  wide,  3G;  the  neglect  of  the  Christian  religion, 
57;  and  the  daring  assaults  of  scepticism,  37.  They  are  forcible,  38;  and  may  be 
NOW  considered  with  facilit}',  from  the  diffusion  of  education,  38;  progress  in  the 
study  of  the  law  of  evidence,  39;  the  avowed  necessity  of  following  nature,  39;  and 
the  revival  of  primitive  piety  and  zeal,  39.  Their  importance,  42;  their  accumula- 
tion, 2G6.  The  sim|)licity,  variety,  independence,  and  force  of,  increase  man's 
obligation,  ii.  3^16.  They  have  arisen  in  an  incidental  manner,  ii.SoO.  The  actual 
mass  at  the  present  time,  381. 

Evidences,  external  and  internal,  compared,  and  their  respective  places  and  merit  de- 
termined, ii.  25.     The  topics  of  the  internal,  staled,  28. 

Evidences,  external,  recapitulation  of,  i.  336. 

Evidences,  internal,  the  nature  of  the  argument  arising  from,  ii.  367;  recapitulation  of 
the  details  of,  3G9;  correspond  with  the  probationary  and  imperfect  state  of  man, 
371;  are  to  be  collected  together,  372. 

Example  of  his  disciples,  Christ  the,  ii.  110. 

Facts  now  admitted  a  .sisl  the  consideration  of  the  question  of  evidences,  ii.  387. 

Failh  should  practically  correspond  with  what  we  admit  in  argument  respecting 
Christianiiy,  i.  147. 

Faith,  definition  of,  ii.  283;  the  principle  by  which  human  society  is  moved,  283;  de- 
finition and  illustrationof  faith  in  a  divine  Revelation,  284;  distinction  between  failh 
exercised  on  human  testimony  and  on  divine,  285;  dilference  between  a  living  and 
dead,  28G;  the  corruption  of  man  forms  the  great  ditiiculty  in  exercising  faith  on 
divine  testimony,  28G,  287;  for  man  hesitates  to  exercise  faith  in  Christianity, 


INDEX.  403 

ahhouajh  God  is  the  author  of  the  Revelation,  288;  ii  regards  man's  supreme  inter- 
ests, 288;  and  comes  to  him  in  tlie  moment  of  danger,  288;  the  scriptural  account 
of  289;  prayer  for,  290;  the  reasonableness  of,  after  admitting-  the  divine  autliority 
of  Christianity,  290;  boiii  as  to  the  discoveries  of  the  Christian  religion,  291;  and  as 
to  the  necessity  of  divine  aid,  294;  the  extent  of,  296;  embracing  every  part  of 
Revelaiion,  297;  assigning  to  each  the  relative  importance  which  it  finds  ascribed 
in  Scripture,  298;  but,  slopping  where  Revelation  stops.  299;  and  following,  as 
much  as  possible,  the  language  as  well  as  the  sentiments  of  Scripture,  301;  produ- 
ces tranquillity,  302;  and  is  the  principle  of  the  Christian  life,  304;  must  be  vital  and 
influential,  28G,  305;  is  obtained  in  answer  to  prayer  for  the  grace  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  290,  306;  and  is  calculated  to  produce  humility  of  mind,  308;  implies  an 
honest  application  of  our  natural  understanding  to  the  Scriptures,  311;  includes  a 
willingness  to  submit  it,  together  with  our  heart,  to  all  the  truths  which  God  has 
been  pleased  to  reveal,  312;  puts  us  in  possessionof  many  of  the  blessings  of  which 
the  Scriptures  treat,  313;  leads  the  Christian  to  seek  the  assistance  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  314;  guards  him  against  the  danger  of  hazardous  interpretations,  or  false 
use  of  difficult  passages,  315;  disposes  him  to  resort  to  all  the  necessary  helps  in 
order  to  obtain  a  sound  interpretation  of  Scripture,  315;  Historical,  will  only  in- 
crease condemnation,  208.  A  sound  interpretation  of  Scripture  springs  directly 
from  a  true,  31 1. 

Forgeries,  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  cannot  be,  i.  89. 

Fortitude  and  constancy  of  our  Lord,  ii.  115. 

Gastrel,  jBisAop  quotation  from,  on  the  harmony  of  the  Christian  doctrines,  ii.  GG. 

Gibbon's  pride  and  presumption  at  the  approach  of  death,  ii.  2G7. 

God,  the  being,  perfections,  and  providence  of  the  one  living  and  true,  ii.  53;  the 

doctrines  emanate  from  the  character  of,  GO. 
Grace  of  God  is  now  turning  the  minds  of  men  to  the  most  efTectivc  statement  of  the 

whole  argument,  ii.  338. 
Grandeur  and  sublimity  of  the  Christian  doctrines,  ii.  62. 

//armonj/ of  the  Christian  doctrines,  ii.  63. 

Heathen  world,  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  had  lost  the  doctrine  of  the  being  of  God, 
i.  61;  they  had  no  standard  of  morals,  62;  no  moral  teaching,  63;  they  were  impure 
and  abominable  even  in  their  religion,  63;  their  depravity,  both  as  to  knowledge 
and  practice,  deep  and  universal,  64;  and  they  had  no  principle  of  reformation,  G5; 
the  wisest  heathens  confessed  their  despair,  76. 

Heathen  countries,  of  the  present  day,  the  slate  of,  prove  to  us  that  unassisted  reason 
cannot  enlighten  and  sanctify  mankind,  i.  70;  the  moral  and  religious  state  of  India, 
70;  Western  or  Southern  Africa,  71;  America  and  China,  72;  an  uniformit3'  in 
their  vices,  72;  their  miserable  condition  should  awaken  our  sympathy,  78. 

Heathen  writers  admit  the  facts  of  the  gospel  history,  i.  129. 

Heavenhj  reward  promised  by  our  Lord  to  his  disciples,  ii.  109. 

Hindrances  which  impede  the  full  effects  of  the  Christian  religion,  ii.  138;  foretold  by 
Christianity,  147. 

Holy  Spirit,  the  personality  and  operations  of,  ii.  58. 

Hooker's  last  words,  ii.  269. 

Hope,  the  Christian's,  defined  i.  25;  the  reason  of  it  as  given  by  Christians  of  the  first 
century,  25;  of  the  second  and  third  century,  27;  of  the  ninth,  tenth,  or  twelfth  cen- 
tury, 28;  of  the  eighteenth  or  nineteenth  century,  29;  to  be  always  given  with  meek- 
ness and  fear,  30,  43. 

Horsli'ij,  Bishop,  on  the  inspiration  of  the  New  Testament,  i.  note,  305,  324. 

HumJbk  and  teachable  minds  admit  spontaneously  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  i. 
334. 


404  INDEX. 

Hnnu's  deatli-lied,  ii.  2GS. 

Humiliating,  ilic  Christian  doctrines  arc,  ii.  68. 

Humiliation  of  our  Lord,  ii.  108. 

Ignalins,  Bishop  of  Aniioch,  A.  u.  70,  testimony  of,  to  the  authenticity  of  books  of 
New  Testameiii,  i.  105. 

Impostor,  an.  could  not  have  invented  tlie  farts  of  the  New  Testament,  i.  15G. 

Infidelity  blots  out  all  Revelation,  i.  76;  attempts  to  oppose  reason  to  faith,  ii.  290. 

Infidels,  the  wreiclied  systems  of,  ii.  96;  horrify  the  sincere  inquirer  after  morality, 
97.  The  admissions  of,  respecting  the  character  of  our  Lord,  128.  Lives  and 
deaths  of,  compared  with  those  of  sincere  Christians,  249;  as  to  the  maintenance  of 
the  |)rinciplcs  of  morals  and  religion  held  by  them  in  common,  243;  their  respective 
discharge  of  the  duties  of  domestic  and  social  life, 248;  their  benevolence  and  good- 
will towards  men,  253;  their  public  labors  and  the  writings  they  have  submitted  to 
the  eye  of  mankind,  258;  their  deaths,  265;  and  preparation  for  an  eternal  stale  of 
being,  274.  Every  one  should  examine  with  which  company  he  is  walking  in  the 
journey  of  life,  280.     Sec  Unbelievers. 

Inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  most  important,  i.  290;  that  of  the  Old  Testament 
asserted  by  our  Lord  and  his  apostles,  293;  that  of  the  New  Testament  inferred 
from  that  of  the  Old,  293;  confirmed  by  the  promise  made  by  our  Lord,  and  by  the 
gifts  received  in  consequence,  300;  claimed  by  the  apostles  themselves,  307;  and 
attested  by  the  early  Christian  church,  312;  the  wonderful  union  of  divine  and 
liuman  agency  in  the  inspiration  of  Scriptures,  318;  the  extent  of  inspiration,  321; 
and  the  advantages  which  we  derive  from  both,  326;  the  admission  of  it  essential 
to  the  right  reception  of  Christianity,  330;  tends  to  shut  out  the  most  pernicious 
evils,  331;  and  is  the  spontaneous  dictate  of  the  humble  and  teachable,  334. 

Interests,  the  immense,  at  stake,  carries  the  obligations  of  Christianity  to  an  incon- 
ceivable height,  ii.  359. 

Interpretation,  the  sound,  of  Scripture,  ii.  310;  springs  directly  from  a  true  faith, 
which  implies  an  honest  application  of  our  natural  understanding  to  the  Scriptures, 
311;  includes  a  willingness  to  submit  our  understanding  and  heart  to  all  the  truths 
which  God  is  pleased  to  reveal,  312;  puts  us  in  possession  of  many  of  the  blessings 
of  which  the  Scriptures  treat,  313;  leads  the  Christian  to  seek  the  assistance  of 
God's  Holy  Spirit,  314;  guards  him  against  the  danger  of  hazardous  interpreta- 
tions, or  a  false  use  of  difficult  passages,  315;  disposes  him  to  resort  to  all  necessa- 
ry helps,  315;  common  sense,  and  the  ordinary  laws  of  human  language,  suggest 
that  the  simplest  sense  is,  generally,  the  true  one.  316;  the  occasion  of  the  books 
being  written  should  be  consulted.  318;  brief  passages  explained  by  those  which 
are  more  full,  319;  figurative  and  poetical  parts  interpreted  by  their  appropriate 
laws,  320;  we  should  suspend  ourjudgment  where  a  passage  is,  after  all,  not  obvi- 
ous, 321;  the  scope  and  analogy  of  truth  will  either  solve  all  material  difficulties, 
or  render  tlicm  practically  useful,  322.  The  inspiration  which  belongs  to  the  Bible, 
requires  us,  in  interpreting  its  contents,  to  rise  to  the  sublimity  of  the  Scripture  mys- 
teries, 323;  to  give  to  the  last  portion  of  Revelation  that  weight  which  it  may  justly 
claim,  324;  to  discover  the  lustre  of  what  is  permanent  and  uniform,  amidst  all 
that  is  temporary,  local,  and  extraordinary,  325;  to  distinguish  between  vital  Chris- 
tianity and  what  is  merely  nominal  adherence  to  its  external  ordinances,  326;  to 
derive  from  Scripture  the  use,  place  and  bearings  of  truth,  as  well  as  the  truth  itself, 
327;  not  to  force  the  simple  meaning  of  Scripture,  either  to  express  or  exclude 
mysteries,  according  to  our  turn  of  mind,  329;  anil  not  lo  reduce  divine  truths  to 
a  human  system.  331.  The  diversity  of  interpretations  has  been  greatly  exagger- 
ated, 333;  is  not  chargeable  on  Christianity,  333;  falls  chiefly  on  subordinate  mat- 
ters, 33'i;  the  evils  may  be  avoided  in  practice,  334;  the  universal  church  has  pre- 


INDEX. 


405 


sented  but  one  front  of  truth  to  mankind,  33-1..     Vital  Christianity  in  the  heart  can 

alone  interpret  aright,  335. 
/r«ncp»/i' testimony  to  the  inspiration  of  the  New  Testament, i.  313. 
Ishmael,  the  present  stale  of  the  descendants  of,  agrees  with  the  prophecy  concerning 

them,  i.  2"2<). 

Japheth,  the  present  stale  of  the  descendants  of,  agrees  with  the  prophecy  concerning 

them,  i.  231. 
Jerome,  St.   testimony  of,  to  the  authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  i. 

106. 
Jews,  the  dispersion  of,  i.  224;  a  standing  miracle,  240. 
Josephus,  testimony  of,  to  the  facts  of  Christianity,  i.  131. 
Julian,  the  apostate,  allows  the  facts  of  Christianity,  and  admits  the  gospels  as  the 

works  of  the  apostles,  i.  108. 
Justijicalion  by  faith  only,  is  the  leading  truth  of  the  whole  gospel,  ii.  57,  G8. 
Justin  Marttjr,  lesiimony  of,  to  the  authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament, 

i.  105;  to  the  inspiration,  313. 

Koran  of  Mahomet  condemned  by  its  contents,  i.  91. 

Lardner,  Dr.,  quotation  from,  as  to  the  number  of  quotations  from  Scripture  in  the 

works  of  Irenaeus,  i.  102. 
Latimer's  last  words,  ii.  271. 
Lectures,  order  of,  i.  40. 

Life,  the  Christian's  holy,  best  defence  of  Christianity,  i.30. 
Love  of  Christ  constrains,  ii.  89. 
Love  of  Christians  to  the  Bible,  attested  by  Pamphilus,  i.  107;  Valens,  107;  Constan- 

tine,  107;  has  furnished  us  with  the  proofs  of  its  authenticity,  122.     Exhortation  to 

the  duty,  123. 

Ma}wmetanism,  propagation  of,  i.  258. 

MaJwmet  does  not  venture  to  question  the  facts  of  Christianity,  i.  135;  apostacy 
of,  232. 

Man,  every,  lies  under  an  obligation  to  obey  the  divine  Revelation.     See  Obligation. 

Man's  guilt  and  condemnation  as  a  transgressor  against  God,  ii.  55. 

Manner  in  which  the  evangelists  give  the  character  of  our  Lord,  ii.  123. 

Mamiscript  of  the  New  Testament,  the  number  and  antiquity  of,  i.  110. 

Medals,  by  their  inscriptions,  attest  the  credibility  of  the  gospel  history,  i.  13G. 

Meditations  supposed  to  be  made  by  one  who  has  made  a  trial  of  the  blessings  of 
Christianity,  ii.  205. 

Meekness  and  Imcliaess  of  spirit  of  our  Lord,  ii.  113. 

Men  of  the  finest  talents  convinced  by  the  Christian  history,  i.  ISl,  257. 

Messiah.     SeeCHUiST. 

Ministei's  of  Christ's  church,  address  to,  ii.  392;  in  danger  of  mistaking  talents  for  the 
operations  of  grace,  393;  need  expansive  charity,  394;  diligence  and  compassion 
in  their  pastoral  duties,  395;  and  should  pay  attention  to  the  subject  of  evi- 
dences, 395. 

Miracle,  definition  of  a,  i.  1(11.  The  wonderful  actions  ascribed  to  our  Saviour  and 
his  apostles,  and  called  miracles,  really  took  place,  152.  In  every  miracle, 
there  are  two  distinct  and  pnljiable  facts,  153;  these  are  attested  by  the  cred- 
ibility of  the  books,  154;  the  converts  of  the  first  century  believed  them,  154; 
monuments  were  set  up  in  memory  of  them,  and  continue  to  the  present  day,  155; 
the  account  itself,  as  recorded  in  our  books,  establishes  them,  157.  Objections 
against  the  credibility  of  miracles  answered;  159.     The  wonderful  actions  were 


40G  INDEX. 

plain  and  palpable  miracles,  162;  iliey  were  done  by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  as 
divine  acts,  IC'2;  before  the  Jewish  nation,  163;  consisted  of  numerous  and  various 
suspensions  of  the  course  of  nature,  lfi3:  produced  permanent  eflects,  1G5;  and 
were  wrouglil  for  a  hig-li  and  holy  end,  IGo.  The  miracles  of  which  our  Lord  was  the 
subject,  1C3.  Our  Saviour  and  the  apostles  appealed  to  them  in  proof  of  their 
mission,  166;  they  had  been  predicted  as  the  express  evidence  of  Messiah,  1G7; 
they  form  an  appropriate  attestation  to  a  divine  religion,  167;  t'ley  were  performed 
by  those  who  had  all  other  signs  of  a  divine  mission,  168;  the  inference  from  them 
to  the  truth  of  Christianity  is  conclusive,  168;  they  are  incorporated  with  the  in- 
structions of  Christianity,  169;  confirmed  by  the  success  of  the  gospel,  170.  The 
religion  of  the  Bible,  the  sole  religion,  set  up  and  established  by  miracles,  171. 

3Iissio7is,  success  of  Christian,  i.  259. 

Moral  government  of  God,  the  end  of,  promoted  by  the  Christian  doctrines,  ii.  67. 

Morals,  Christian, ]eve\  to  the  comprehension  of  man,  ii.  76;  admired  b^-  unbelievers, 
77.  Their  e.\lent  and  purity:  they  embrace  all  that  is  reall}'  good  in  the  ethics  of 
heathen  sages,  77;  form  a  complete  code,  78;  erect  the  only  true  standard  of  duly 
to  God  and  man,  78;  omit  many  false  virtues,  and  insist  on  many  real  ones,  79; 
chiefly  on  the  mild  and  retiring,  79;  they  require  also  an  abstinence  from  the  prox- 
imate causes  of  evil,  80;  regard  all  forms  of  devotion,  as  means  to  a  higher  end, 
80;  aid  each  other,  80;  and  go  to  form  a  particular  sort  of  character,  81.  In  order  to 
produce  these,  Christianity  begins  with  the  heart  of  man,  82;  aims  at  the  forma- 
tion of  habits,  82;  directs  men  to  seek  the  highest  attainments,  whilst  she  encourages 
the  weakest  efforts,  83;  keeps  aloof  from  secular  policy,  83;  delivers  her  code  in 
decisive  prohibitions,  84;  sets  forth  strong  and  affecting  examples,  85:  and  refers 
men  to  the  all-seeing  eye  of  God,  86.  They  are  connected  with  every  part  of 
Revelation,  and  especially  with  its  peculiar  doctrines,  86;  they  have  the  will  of  God 
as  the  rule,  and  the  eternal  judgment  as  their  ultimate  sanction,  91;  they  are  such 
as  makes  it  impossible  thai  Christianity  should  be  an  imposture,  94. 

Muratori,  a  remarkable  fragment  discovered  by,  in  1740,  i.  118. 

Mysteries  of  man's  state  in  this  world,  unfolded  in  the  Christian  Revelation,  ii.  35. 

Nations,  Christianity  promotes  the  happiness  of,  ii.  136, 144. 

Necessities  of  man  met  by  the  Christian  doctrines,  ii.66. 

Nineveh,  destruction  of,  i.  227. 

Novelty  and  sublimity  of  our  Saviour's  deportment,  and  undertaking  surprising,  ii.  119. 

Obedience  indispensable  in  a  Christian  student,  i.  46. 

Oberlin,  the  last  hours  of  Pastor,  ii.  272. 

Objections  against  miracles  answered;  the  fallibility  of  human  testimony,  i.  158;  mir- 
acles are  contrary  to  experience,  159;  the  transmission  of  remote  facts  is  weakened 
by  the  lapse  of  time.  159.  Against  the  Christian  religion,  ii.  210;  the  best  method 
of  treating,  211;  are  inadmissible,  being  either  speculative  opinions,  and  thus  wrong 
in  kind,  214;  or  against  the  matter  of  Revelation,  and  thus  wrong  in  object,  216; 
contradictory  the  one  to  the  other,  219;  frivolous  in  themselves,  224;  and  mani- 
festly spring  from  the  pride,  225;  and  ignorance  of  the  human  mind,  229;  only 
trials  of  our  sincerity  and  submission  of  heart  to  God,  and  confirm,  rather  than 
weaken,  the  Christian  evidences,  234.  They  fix  themselves  in  unfurnished  and 
vain  minds,  239;  prepared  by  vicious  indulgences,  239;  the  departure  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  240;  and  the  holding  slightly  by  Christianity.  240.  They  are  the  strata- 
gems of  Satan,  241;  and  the  most  deadly  product  of  the  corrupt  and  proud  reason 
of  a  fallen  creature,  242.  To  the  Christian  Revelation,  founded  on  the  diversity  of 
interpretations,  refuted,  333. 


INDEX. 


407 


Obligation  to  obey  the  divine  Revelation  universal,  ii.  338.  The  necessity  of  enforcing 
this,  a  proof  of  liie  corruption  of  man,  339.  To  love  and  obey  God  antecedent  to 
Revelaiion,  310.  Men  not  left  to  accept  or  reject  Christianity  at  their  option,  341. 
Christianity  so  excellent  in  itself,  that  the  slightest  external  evidence  would  be  sufli- 
cient  to  oblige  men  to  obey  it,  343.  Increased  by  the  simplicity,  variety,  indepen- 
dence, and  force  of  the  evidences,  3^16.  Unspeakably  augmented  by  the  advan- 
tages which  each  individual  has  enjoyed,  353;  the  being  not  born  in  a  heathen 
laud,  334;  the  events  of  life  ordered  by  a  gracious  Providence,  354;  secret  mo- 
tions of  the  blessed  Spirit  vouchsafed,  355;  advice,  example,  and  prayers  of  min- 
isters and  friends,  356.  The  momentous  discoveries  made,  and  the  immense  inter- 
ests at  stake  carry  it  to  an  inconceivable  height,  357;  Christianity  makes  new  dis- 
coveries, 357;  the  immense  love  of  God  in  the  redemption  of  Jesus  Christ,  338; 
the  day  of  judgment,  359;  the  heavenly  prize,  33!);  the  awful  contrast,  361;  eter- 
nity, what  is  it?  362;  and  what  protection  against  it?  363. 

Obstaclfs  lo  ibe  rapid  diffusion  of  Christianity  surmounted,  i.  249;  the  first  teachers 
were  feeble  and  unknown,  249;  the  time  of  promulgation  of  Christianity  inauspi- 
cious, 232;  and  also  the  place,  234;  these  were  both  increased  by  the  fiercest  per- 
secution, 253. 

Origen's  testimony  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  i.  314. 

Paine,  Thomas,  the  life  and  conduct  of,  ii.  249;  his  last  moments,  269. 

Pamphiius'  testimony  of  the  love  of  Christians  to  the  holy  books,  i.  107. 

Pascal's  demeanor  on  his  death-bed,  ii.  268. 

Paul's  St.,  qualifications  correspon<l  vviih  the  ofiices  he  had  to  fulfil,  i.  303. 

Perpetuity  of  Christianity,  a  proof  of  its  divine  authority,  i.  262. 

Persecution  of  the  first  Christians,  i.  233. 

Piety  and  devotion  of  Jesus  Christ,  ii.  111. 

Pliny's  testimony  to  facts  of  the  gospel,  i.  130;  to  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  246. 

Polycarp,  testimony  of,  to  the  autlionticity  of  books  of  New  Testament,  i.  103.  Mar- 
tyrdom of,  ii.  271. 

Pontius  Pilate,  testimony  of,  to  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  i.  129. 

Porphijry,  the  Heathen,  admits  the  authenticity  of  the  Christian  books,  i.  108. 

Prayer,  the  necessity  of,  in  considering  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,  i.  43,  46. 

Propagation  of  Christianity,  a  proof  of  its  divine  authority,  i.  244;  appears  from  the 
singularity  of  the  attempt, 244;  the  rapidity  and  extent  of  it,  244;  the  nature  of 
the  doctrine  thus  propagated,  249;  the  obstacles  surmounted,  249;  the  change 
wrought  in  the  converts,  236.  Compared  with  that  of  Mahometanism,  258;  with 
the  success  of  our  Christian  missions  amongst  Jews  and  Heathen,  239;  and  with 
reforms  in  Christian  countries,  260.  The  propagation  of  Christianity  is  fulfilment 
of  pro|jhecy,  264. 

Prophecy,  definition  of,  i.  180;  its  extent,  181;  harmony  of  all  its  parts  in  the  person 
of  the  Saviour,  183;  the  infinite  wisdom  apparent  in  the  contrivance  of  them,  184; 
the  double  sense  of  prophecy,  188;  the  practical  and  important  en<ls  which  proph- 
ecy subserves,  19-5,  242;  it  has  the  impress  of  the  majesty  of  God,  195;  fulfilment  of 
it,  200,  343. 

Prophecy,  fuljilment  of,  in  the  person  of  our  Lord,  i.  201;  as  to  the  time,  place,  &,c. 
of  his  birth,  201;  his  life,  suficrings,  death  and  resurrection,  202;  his  miracles  and 
doctrine,  203;  uniting  qualities  and  attributes  the  most  contradictory,  203;  and  as 
to  his  spiritual  oflticcs,  212.  Circumstances  connected  with  the  fulfilment  increase 
the  proof  of  divine  foreknowledge,  207.  Prophecy  of  the  destruction  of  the  city 
and  polity  of  the  Jews,  and  their  dispersion  fulfilled,  216;  others  which  relate  to 
various  cities,  nations,  and  empires,  227.  Nineveh  and  Tyre,  227.  Babylon, 
228;  descendants  of  Ishmacl,  229.    Egyptians,  230;  descendants  of  Canaan,  Shem, 


408  INDEX. 

and  Japhelh,  230;  Dainiel's  prediction  concernine:  ilip  four  empires,  232;  prophe- 
cies of  Daniel,  Si.  Paul,  and  St.  John,  respecting  the  western  aposlacy,  233;  those 
concerning  the  future  conversion  of  the  world,  and  the  final  triumph  of  holiness 
and  truth,  'i3t>. 

Prophets,  the,  had  a  solemn  mission  and  call,  known  by  all  the  nation,  i.  189;  were 
men  of  sincere  personal  piety,  ISX);  their  prophecies  form  but  a  small  part  of 
their  general  instructions,  I'JO;  their  messages  were  often  of  the  most  distressing 
nature  to  their  personal  feelings,  I'JO;  they  suffered  even  unto  death,  190;  they  re- 
cord minutely  every  thing,  even  though  it  might  seem  to  make  against  them,  191. 
They  performed  miracles,  191.  The  number  and  ages  of  the  prophets,  and  the  in- 
dependence of  their  predictions,  increase  the  proof  of  divine  prescience,  205. 

Prophetical  argument,  the  force  of,  i.  238. 

Prophetical  inspiration,  accumulation  of,  i.  208. 

Prudence  and  discretion  of  Jesus  Christ,  ii.  115. 

Reason  conducts  us  to  Revelation,  ii.  290;  her  province  marked  out,  292;  Mr.  Locke's 
account  of,  293;  Bishop  J.  B.  Sumner's  observation  respecting,  293;  lord  Bacon's 
remark  on  the  oflice  of  reason,  291. 

Reasonable7iess  of  faith  in  the  Christian  Revelation,  ii.  290. 

Reasoning  defined  by  Dr.  Thomas  Browne,  ii.29i;  the  clearer  laws  of,  now  acknowl- 
edged, did  us  in  examining  the  Christian  Evidences,  ii.  387. 

Recapitulation  of  the  external  evidences,  i.  337;  of  the  internal,  ii.  369. 

Redemption'm  the  incarnation  and  sacrifice  of  the  only-begoticn  Son  of  God,  ii.  5S. 

Reformations  in  Christian  countries,  progress  of,  i.  2G0. 

Regeneration  of  man  described,  ii.  58. 

Remedy,  the  Bible  provides  a,  for  all  the  wants  of  man,  ii.  39;  which  works  by 
proposing  adequate  m<itives,  41;  placing  him  in  a  favorable  state  of  probation,  41; 
proposing  a  system  of  means  adapted  to  his  powers,  41;  all  agreeing  with  his  out- 
ward circumstances,  42;  calculated  lo  draw  out  to  the  utmost  all  his  faculties,  42; 
and  to  carry  him  on  lo  his  true  end,  43. 

Resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  the  last  solemn  judgment,  ii.  59. 

Revelation,  the  necessity  of  divine,  appears  from  the  stale  of  the  heathen  world,  be- 
fore the  coming  of  Christ,  i.  61;  of  unbelievers  at  present  scattered  in  Christian 
lands,  67;  of  pagan  nations  of  the  present  day,  70;  and  of  the  countries  of  Chris- 
tendom themselves,  73.  A  general  impression  has  prevailed  that  God  has  granted 
one  to  man,  76. 

Ridley's  dying  address  to  Latimer,  ii.  271. 

Rites  ayid  usages,  religious,  springing  out  of  Christianity,  and  subsisting  at  the  present 
day,  i.  135. 

Rome,  the  church  and  Bishop  of,  ihe  great  western  aposlacy  foretold  by  Daniel,  St. 

Paul,  and  St.  John,  i,  233. 
Rosseau  and  Doddridge  contrasted,  ii.  257.     Rosseau  on  his  death-bed,  268. 
Rulers  and  governors  of  our  country,  address  to,  ii.  390. 
Rules  for  the  sound  interpretation  of  Scripture,  ii.  318. 

Sacraments,  the,  and  the  other  means  of  grace,  ii.  59. 

Sacred  Volume  is  unique  and  unparalleled  in  the  history' of  the  world,  i.  121. 

Safety-lamp,  Christianity  a,  ii.  243. 

Sensual  pleasures  must  be  renounced  before  the  evidence  of  miracles  can  be  re- 
ceived, i.  174. 

Seriousness  essential  to  a  right  investigation  of  the  Christian  evidences,  i.  45. 

Shem,  the  present  slate  of  the  descendants  of,  fulfils  ilie  prophecy  concerning  them, 
i.  231. 

Simplicity  of  ibe  CbrisUan  doctrines,  ii.  6L 


INDEX.  409 

Sincere  inquirer  receives  Christianity  on  tlie  external  evidences,  ii.  27, 

Spirituality  is  the  sum  of  Christian  morals,  ii.  82. 

Spurious  writings,  marks  of,  i.  87;  not  one  of  them  to  be  found  in  books  of  New 
Testament,  87. 

Student  of  Christianity  must  be  docile,  i.  45;  serious,  45;  prayerful,  46;  obedient,  46; 
humble  and  practical,  alone  pleases  God,  148.  Address  to  the  docile  and  sincere, 
173.  Should  study  the  sacred  Volume  with  increasing  diligence,  197;  with  a 
practical  end  in  view,  19S;  have  singleness  of  heart,  215.  Student  convinced,  266. 

Steadfastness  in  the  Christian  faith  urged,  ii.  97. 

Style  and  manner  of  the  books  of  the  iN'ew  Testament,  i.  113. 

Submission  to  the  Christian  faith  should  be  immediate,  ii.  363;  cordial,  364. 

Success  of  Christianity  in  proportion  to  llie  removal  of  hindrances,  ii.  141. 

Suicide,  infidelity  too  often  hurries  on  its  votaries  to  commit,  ii.  272. 

Suitableness  of  Christianity  to  the  state  and  wants  of  man;  the  nature  of  the  argu- 
ment stated,  ii.  31;  established  by  the  decisive  language  which  ihc  Christian  Rev- 
elation speaks,  32;  the  mysteries  of  his  condition  which  it  unfolds,  35;  the  remedy 
for  all  his  wants  which  it  provides,  39;  and  as  it  is  calculated  for  universal  diffusion, 
44.  This  adaptation  does  not  strike  the  mind  at  first,  49;  yet  was  originally  formed 
by  the  wisdom  of  God,  49;  and  is  best  seen  from  the  midst  of  human  weakness, 
misery,  and  sorrow,  49. 

Swartz  and  Volneij  contrasted,  ii.  257. 

Tacitus,  testimony  of,  to  the  gospel  facts,  i.  130;  to  the  propagation  of  Christianity, 
215. 

Temper  of  mind  in  which  Christianity  should  be  studied,  i.  44;  is  characterized  by 
docility,  45;  seriousness,  45;  praj'er,  46;  obedience,  46;  entirely  wauling  in  unbe- 
lievers; literary,  47;  uninformed,  49;  low  and  profane,  50.  Its  indispensable  im- 
portance appears,  from  the  influence  of  the  passions  over  the  understanding,  51; 
acknowledged  to  be  essential  to  every  important  investigation,  51;  must  be  yet 
more  so  in  the  investigation  of  the  Christian  evidences,  52;  and  is  required  by 
Christianity  herself,  53.  This  temper  should  be  cultivated  by  those  who  are  har- 
assed by  suspicions,  5G;  by  the  young,  58;  and  by  all,  59. 

Temperance  of  Jesus  Christ,  ii.  114. 

Temple  at  Jerusalem,  description  of,  i.  217.  Attempt  by  Julian  to  rebuild  it,  frustrat- 
ed, 223. 

Tendencij  of  Christianity  to  promote  the  temporal  and  spiritual  happiness  of  nations 
and  individuals,  ii.  131;  appears  from  the  direction  which  it  takes,  134;  the  hin- 
drances opposed  to  it,  138;  its  success  in  proportion  to  the  removal  of  them,  141; 
and  the  ultimate  eflects  which  it  will  produce  when  all  obstacles  are  removed,  147. 
Each  individual  should  show  forth  this  tendency  by  his  holy  life,  15-1,  155;  and 
pray  for  the  copious  influences  of  grace  to  hasten  on  the  blessed  period  when  the 
tendencies  of  Christianity  shall  become  effects,  155. 

Tertullian,  testimony  of,  to  the  authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  i. 
106,  111;  to  the  inspiration,  314. 

and  Origen  state  the  extent  of  the  propagation  of  Christianitj',  i.  247. 

Test,  the,  to  which  every  one  may  bring  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  ii.  158; 
the  nature  of  the  argument,  159;  the  scriptural  authority  on  which  it  rests,  163;  the 
facts  by  which  it  is  sustained,  167;  there  is  nothing  in  it  to  excite  astonishment,  172. 
The  defect  of  experience  in  sonic  persons,  no  valid  objection  to  the  argument,  173. 
The  singular  importance  of  the  proof  thus  educed,  being  entirely  level  to  the  mass 
of  mankind,  175;  the  most  satisfactory  to  men  of  all  classes,  178;  a  growing  evi- 
dence, 179;  strengthening  all  the  external  and  internal  proofs,  180;  and  peculiarly 
necessary  in  the  present  day,  182.    An  appeal  to   sincere  Christians  in  support 

52 


410  INDEX. 

of  this  argument,  185;  directions  for  the  application  of  the  test,  187;  the  character 

of  persons  prepared  to  enter  on  a  personal  trial,  188. 
Theophilus'  testimony  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  i.  313. 
Tranquillihj  of  mind  produced  hy  faith,  ii.  302. 
Trajislation  of  the  Hihie,  the  fidelity  of  the  English,  i.  146. 
Tyre,  destruction  of,  i.  227. 

Unbelier'ers  want  the  temper  of  mind  in  which  alone  Christianity  can  be  properly 
studied,  i.  47.  They  betray  a  wrong  temper,  54.  Their  five  common  principles, 
67;  borrowed  from  Christianity,  67;  held  loosely,  68;  wholly  insufficient  as  a  guide 
to  man,  69.     See  Infidels,  Infidelity. 

Union  of  separate  graces  in  our  Saviour's  personal  character,  ii.  115. 

Umversal  diffusion,  the  Bible  is  calculated  for,  ii.  44.5  both  as  to  matter,  44;  and  man- 
ner, 46. 

Valens^  testimony  to  the  love  of  Christians  to  the  holy  books,  i.  107. 

Volney  and  Swartz  contrasted,  ii.  257. 

VoUcdre,  the  character  and  conduct  of,  ii.  250.    His  last  days,  270. 

IVarburton's,  Bishop,  opinion  on  the  inspiration  of  the  New  Testament,  i.  298,  321. 
World,  our  Lord's  superiority  to  the,  ii.  113. 

IVriters  on  the  evidences  have  pursued  various  methods,  ii.  385;  primitive,  385;  lit- 
erary, 385;  theological,  385;  metaphysical,  386;  historical,  386;  Christiao,  386. 

Young,  address  to  the,  i.  345,  346;  exhorted  to  shun  vicious  courses,  ii.  239;  to  be 
careful  not  to  provoke  the  Spirit  of  God  to  depart  from  them,  240;  and  to  see  that 
they  possess  the  substantial  blessings  of  Christianity,  240.  Convinced  from  the  lives 
and  deaths  of  infidels,  that  ihcir  objections  confirm  Christianity,  275. 


THE    PUBLISHERS    OF    THIS    WORK 

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THE  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY;  stated  in  a 
popular  and  practical  manner,  in  a  Course  of  Lectures,  on  the  Au- 
thenticity. Credibility,  ])ivine  Authority,  and  Inspiration  of  the 
New  Testament.  By  Rev.  Daniel  Wilson,  A.  M.  Vicar  of  the 
Parish  Church  of  St.  Mary,  Islington.     Vol.  I. 

Extract  from  a  Notice  in  the  British  Critic  and   Theological  Review,  July  1829. 

"We  Jiave  {^reat  pleasure  in  calliii!^  the  attention  of  our  readers  to  this  unpretend- 
ing and  very  useful  volume.  The  author  makes  no  claim  to  originality  of  reasoning, 
but  contents  himself  wiih  undertaking  to  state  the  whole  argument  for  Christianity, 
and  apply  every  part  of  it  to  the  conscience.  The  general  character,  like  the  great 
object  of  the  work,  is  excellent;  and  we  rejoice  to  see  a  man  of  Mr.  Wilson's  talents, 
experience,  and  zeal,  passing  over  those  points  of  doubtful  disputation,  in  which  good 
men  unfortunately  difier,  and  devoting  so  large  a  portion  of  his  time  and  study  to  the 
fundameatal  truths  of  religion." 

Rev.  Dr.  Woods  of  Aiidover  Theological  Seminary,  in  a  letter  to  the  publishers, 
says: — I  am  delighted  with  Wilson's  Lectures  on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity.  The 
arrangement  he  has  made  of  the  various  topics,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  conducts 
the  arguments,  is  highly  satisfactory.  This  volume  connected  with  another  which 
the  author  has  encouraged  us  to  expect,  on  the  internal  evidences,  will  make  a  most 
important  addition  to  the  various  works  which  have  already  been  published  in  support 
of  Revelation.  1  think  I  shall  make  it  a  standard  work  to  be  studied  in  my  depart- 
ment of  the  Seminary." 

WILBERFORCE'S  PRACTICAL  VIEW  OF  CHRIS- 
TIANITY. A  Practical  View  of  the  Prevailing  Religious  Sys- 
tem of  Professed  Christians,  in  the  Higher  and  Middle  Classes  in 
this  Country,  contrasted  with  Real  Christianity.  By  William  Wil- 
berforce,  E.sq. — With  an  Introductory  Essay  by  Rev.  Daniel  Wil- 
son, A.  M.,  Vicar  of  Islington. 

"We  cannot  refrain  from  recommending  to  those  of  our  readers  who  have  not  this 
woBk,  or  who  can  indulge  themselves  witli  a  duplicate  copy,  to  procure  the  present 
edition,  which  is  rendered  peculiarly  to  be  coveted  for  the  sake  of  a  most  interesting 
preparatory  introduction,  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev.  Daniel  Wilson, — and  which  we 
doubt  not  will  go  down  to  posterity  prefixed  to  the  work,  which  it  so  well  elucidates. 
Mr.  W.  has  our  warmest  thanks." — Christian  Obsener  Review. 

ELEMENTS  OF  MENTAL  AND  MORAL  SCIENCE, 

designed  to  exhibit  the  Original  Susceptibilities  of  the  Mind,  and 
the  Rule  by  which  the  Rectitude  of  any  of  its  States  or  Feelings 
should  be  judged.     By  George  Payne,  A.  M.      1  vol.  8vo. 

DR.  GRIFFIN'S  LECTURES— Cheap  Edition.  A  SE- 
RIES OF  LECTURES,  delivered  in  Park  Street  Church,  Boston, 
on  Sabbath  Evening.  By  Rev,  Edward  D.  Griffin,  D.  D.  Third 
Edition,  Revised  and  Corrected.     1  vol.  12mo. 

"We  are  glad  to  see  a  new  and  corrected  edition  of  these  popular  Lectures.  If 
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to  be  estimated  more  highly  than  this.  Ii  has  been  exerting  a  salutary  influence — has 
been  doing  good,  from  the  first  moment  of  its  appearance  to  the  present  time;  and  its 

food  influence,  we  doubt  not,  is  destined  to  continue,  for  a  good  while  to  come." — 
.jpirit  of  the  Pilgrims. 

COURSE  OF  HEBREW  STUDY,  adapted  to  the  use  of 
beginners.  By  Moses  Stuart,  Associate  Professor  of  Sacred  Litera- 
ture in  the  Theological  Seminary,  Audover.     Vol.  II. 


Valuable  Religious  Works. 

A  new  CHEAP   EDITION  of  the  FAMILY  MONITOR, 

or  a  Help  to  Domestic  Happiness,  by  J.  A.  James,  Author  of 
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in  Theology  and  Young  Preachers.  By  Henry  Foster  Burder, 
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tin Edwards,  D.  D.  Also,  a  Course  of  Study  in  Christian  Theol- 
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LECTURES  on  the  SACRED  POETRY  OF  THE  HE- 
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Translated  from  the  Original  l^atin  by  G.  Gregory,  F.  A.  S.  A 
new  edition  with  Notes,  by  Calvin  12.  Stowe,  A.  M. 

ANNALS  OF  THE  POOR;  containing  the  Dairyman's 
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rjy  PRESS.  OBSERVATIONS  upnn  the  PELOPON- 
NESUS and  GREEK  ISLANDS,  made  in  1829.  Prepared 
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